Tilburg University Economics of professional football Besters, Lucas Publication date: 2018 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Besters, L. (2018). Economics of professional football. CentER, Center for Economic Research. 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Aarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op vrijdag 26 januari 2018 om 10.00 uur door Lucas Mattheus Besters geboren op 22 februari 1989 te Hulst Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof. dr. ir. Jan van Ours Copromotor: Dr. Martin van Tuijl Overige leden: Prof. dr. Harry van Dalen Dr. Patricio Dalton Prof. dr. Ruud Koning Acknowledgements On the 26th of January 2012, I obtained my Master degree in Economics at Tilburg University, with Martin van Tuijl as supervisor and Jan van Ours and co-reader. Exactly six years later, on the 26th of January 2018, I defend this dissertation with Jan as promotor and Martin as co-promotor. Within these six years, I first worked as an entrepreneur for three and a half years. After that, I was given the opportunity to earn a PhD by writing four papers on the economics of professional football in only a short period of time. Thus, I have been working hard on this dissertation for the last two and a half years. Quite some people asked me whether I would be able to finish in time. To be honest, there were moments that I had doubts myself. However, I usually answered that my supervisors are confident about it, and, thus, so am I. Often, I added that it would not be possible without the extraordinary supervision of my promotors Jan and Martin. This is true without any doubt and I thank both of you for that. Our cooperation has always been very pleasant and I really appreciate all your advice. It is nice to have the feeling that you, as supervisors, are concerned about my interest during the writhing of this dissertation. Furthermore, I really enjoyed our conversations about our common hobby, i.e. football. I remember that this already happened the first time that Jan and I met in his office in Tilburg during the summer of 2010. You were looking for a research assistant and Martin mentioned me as a candidate. We briefly discussed the tasks that I should perform. Then, we continued to talk about my experience as a football player and you being a fan of Feyenoord. Once, you invited me to join you to attend a home match in De Kuip. Although I am not a fan of Feyenoord myself, I really enjoyed that evening, and I must agree with you that the atmosphere in the stadium is special. In the past two years, we also attended two conferences on sports economics together. In the evenings, we had nice discussions about many things while tasting some beers. I think that it is a good sign that these moments are on top of my mind when I think of our cooperation, for which I want to thank you. However, I am most thankful for all the advice that you gave me and all your experience, expertise and knowledge that you shared with me. I learned a lot from you during the past couple of years. By working under your supervision, I became a better researcher and applied economist. The same applies for my cooperation with Martin. You introduced me to the of field sports economics as the topic for my bachelor thesis in 2009. After that, you also supervised my master thesis and advised me during the writing of this dissertation. In all these years, we had numerous, unscheduled, long and enjoyable discussions about football. Especially the way in which you are able to translate all your knowledge of the sport into funny anecdotes, is a pleasure to listen to. Most of our conversations started with a question about data related to one of our present studies. While talking, we spent most of the time on other topics, such as the current situation in Dutch professional football, and potential research projects. At the end of our meetings, you usually came back to the initial question and then you advised me what to do. That worked perfectly for me. Furthermore, you provided me with advice and support on issues that influenced my writing process, so that I would be able to finish in time. I appreciate your critical view on my work. That definitely improved the quality of my dissertation and my scientific skills. I thank you for that. I also want to thank Harry van Dalen, Patricio Dalton and Ruud Koning for being a member of the promotion committee and all your useful comments. I hope you enjoyed our discussion as much as I did. Your input especially helped me to rethink and improve the interpretation of my findings, which enhanced the quality of the chapters. Furthermore, I thank the participants of the two conferences organized by the European Sport Economics Association as well as the participants of the workshop on Economics and Management of Professional Football at the Erasmus University for their feedback on my presentations. Specifically, I want to mention Thomas Peeters and Gerard Sierksma. I also thank ORTEC Sports and, in particular, Bertus Talsma for the provision of data for, and some useful comments on, the fifth chapter of this doctoral thesis. Naturally, I would not have been able to write this dissertation without the help and support of my close family and friends. First, I thank my parents, Cees and Marijke, for the love that they gave me throughout my life. You taught me that, if you want to achieve something, you should put effort in that. At the same time, you kept stressing that one cannot do more than the best you can. You challenged me to be curious and to learn new things, without putting any pressure on me. If you saw that I was too busy with my work, you remembered me of the importance to take some rest. I hope that you are proud of my achievements and, more importantly, you are proud of me as a person and as your son. I thank you for all your support and I am grateful to have you as my parents. Special thanks go to my brother Casper, with whom I have been sharing an apartment for the past three years. Besides brother and roommate, you are a very good friend, with whom I can discuss any of my concerns. You were helpful and understanding in periods that I was very busy, while always in the mood to talk about my research. Based on your layman’s knowledge as a football fan, you provided me with insights I did not think of. As a joke, you, then, asked to become a co-author, and I smiled and answered that I would take that into consideration. In the end, I can only give you these well-deserved acknowledgments. I would say that we had quite a lot of fun together. Every now and then, your girlfriend Marjolein joint us during dinners and drinks. I thank you for these wonderful moments. I also thank my other brother Victor and his girlfriend Lucienne for your support and advice whenever I needed. We share quite an experience and I am very happy to have you in my life. Furthermore, I thank Matthijs and Stephanie for being close friends and all the moments that we spent together at the university. We had plenty of lunches, coffee-breaks and Friday-afternoon drinks, where we agreed not to discuss our research, since we already had to think of that for the rest of the day. Although that meant that I was not allowed to talk about football, I really enjoyed these moments and thank you for that. I also thank Constant for the fun we had during our weekly dinners at the university, my office-mates Jakub, Michela and Yuxin and my other fellow PhD students Shuai and Khulan. In addition, I thank Jacco, Judith and Ruud, with whom I spend a lot of time in Tilburg during the past couple of years. Finally, I want to thank my friends Jelle, Anne and Vera, and the members of De Ronde Tafel: my brother Casper, Harm, Jason, Kim, Matthijs, Remco, Tias and Tom for all the fun moments we had. Lucas M. Besters Tilburg, December 2017 Contents List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................................... v Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Effectiveness of in-season manager changes in English Premier League football .............................. 3 2.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................