Make or Buy? Human Capital Accumulation Strategies in European Club Football

Abstract

When it comes to discussing club football emotions tend to get heated quite easily across the globe. This heterogeneity in likes and dislikes is not only reflected in name or financial possibilities, but also in the clubs approach to building a team. We analyze whether clubs' strategies regarding buying or cultivating players have a discernable effect on their success on the pitch. For the analysis we employ match level data covering five seasons of play in top-flight Dutch and English club football leagues. The results suggest that players' tenure has a positive and significant effect on the probability of winning, but only in the English Premier League. The positive effect we find for the Premier League aligns with theories of firm specific human capital. We hypothesize the lack of significant effects in the Dutch league to be tied to clubs' inability to keep successful players with the club or buy replacements of equal quality on the transfer market, because the club-specific human capital component takes time to accumulate.

Impact of Market Value, Roster Size, Arrivals and Departures on Performance in Iranian Men’s Football

“…At the club level, this high mobility of professional football players leads to high staff turnover, which can jeopardize team stability and performance. Accordingly, negative impacts of arrivals and departures on team performance can be expected, consistent with previous literature [10,[16][17][18][19]. These previous results specific to football are consistent with findings in other sports and sectors.…”

“…This means that further development is needed for a better understanding and discussion of the impact of roster size on team performance. Moreover, previous football literature tends to find a negative impact of staff turnover on team performance [16][17][18][19]. However, it does not distinguish between arrivals and departures.…”