The Road to Success
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Master Degree Project in Innovation and Industrial Management The Road to Success A Multiple case study of the European Football industry Mattias Ivarsson Supervisor: Evangelos Bourelos Master Degree Project Graduate School Abstract Author: Mattias Ivarsson Tutor: Evangelos Bourelos Title: The Road to Success: A multiple case study of the European football Industry Background: The landscape of UEFA football industry has change in the recent years, football clubs of today have developed into profit-seeking organization and the governing body UEFA has implemented the legislation Financial Fair Play. The new landscape of the industry has change the way football clubs is competing and in order for a football club to compete at the highest level, the club must both improve the sporting performance and the financial performance. Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to identify internal resources that European football clubs possess in which can be potential sources of Sustained competitive advantage Approach: With the commercialization that has characterize UEFA football industry in the recent years has resulted in that football clubs is no longer only judged on their sporting performance but also on their financial performance. Today, the management of football club has similarities to tradition business organizations. Consequently, the author applies and adapts traditional business theories in order to identify key aspect for a football club in their aim of success on and off the field. Result and conclusions: The findings in this thesis show that there is a strong relationship between a football clubs financial strength and the performance on the pitch. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the difference between good financial performance and great financial performance lies in a football clubs ability to attract stakeholders. Thus, a football clubs way to success both from a financial and sporting perspective lies in their ability to sign lucrative sponsorship deals with external corporations. Key words: Financial success, sporting success, football finance, competitive advantage, financial fair play, 2 Important concepts and definitions UEFA: The Union of European football association, European football highest decision-making body in which monitors and controls the UEFA football industry and the UEFA football competitions. The UEFA football industry: The UEFA football industry consist of all football club based in Europe in which are all divided into domestic league systems around Europe. The domestic leagues are controlled by a national governing body in which have their own regulations and league system. Every year, the best performing clubs in the premium division in each domestic league have the opportunity to participate in UEFA competitions the following year. UEFA competitions: Refers to two annual football competitions, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europe League. These two competitions are controlled by UEFA and football clubs around Europe can qualify for the tournament via domestic league performance. UEFA Champions League is the highest ranked tournament for the best football club in Europe and the number of clubs from each domestic league in which gets the opportunity to compete in Champions League depends on how high the domestic league is ranked of UEFA. European top five leagues: The five biggest leagues in Europe, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1. Premier League: The English premier football division La Liga: The Spanish premier football division Bundesliga: The German premier football division Serie A: The Italian premier football division Ligue 1: The French premier football division UEFA financial fair play regulation: A financial regulation implemented by UEFA, with the purpose of creating a healthier financial climate within UEFA football industry. A regulation that force football clubs that operates within UEFA football industry to “breakeven” and if a football club violate this regulation, UEFA as monitoring body, has the power to disqualify the football club from future UEFA competitions. 3 Table of content 1. Introduction ....................................................... 7 1.1 PROBLEM BACKGROUND ................................................................................................... 7 1.1.1 Non-profit organization becomes Profit-seeking Organizations ............................. 7 1.1.2 European football industry landscape with UEFA Financial Fair Play ..................... 9 1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM .......................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 UEFA European football industry from a Resource based view ............................. 11 1.3 PURPOSE .......................................................................................................................... 13 2. Methodology .................................................... 14 2.1 RESEARCH APPROACH ......................................................................................................... 14 2.2 DATA COLLECTION RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................... 15 2.3 SELECTION OF CLUBS .......................................................................................................... 17 2.4 DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 18 2.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ................................................................................................... 18 3. Literature review .............................................. 20 3.1 HOW TO DEFINE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ............................................................................ 20 3.2 WHAT IS THE RESOURCE BASED VIEW? .................................................................................. 21 3.2.1 Resources ............................................................................................................... 22 3.2.2 Heterogeneous and Immobile ................................................................................ 23 3.2.2 VRIN Framework .................................................................................................... 23 3.2.3 Positive reputation ................................................................................................. 26 3.2.4 SUMMARY OF THE RESOURCE BASED VIEW .......................................................................... 27 3.3 MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF FOOTBALL CLUBS ................................................................. 27 3.3.1 Sporting success ..................................................................................................... 28 3.3.2 Financial success .................................................................................................... 28 3.3.3 Special feature of sport management ................................................................... 28 3.4 OVERVIEW OF UEFA FOOTBALL INDUSTRY ............................................................................. 31 3.4.1 Revenue channels .................................................................................................. 31 3.5 Relation between sporting success and increasing revenue ..................................... 35 3.6 Wages expenditures ................................................................................................. 36 3.7 Relation between sporting success and wages ......................................................... 38 4. Empiric .............................................................. 39 4.1 REAL MADRID ................................................................................................................... 39 4.1.1 Organisation structure ........................................................................................... 39 4.1.2 Sporting Performance ............................................................................................ 40 4.1.3 Financial Performance ........................................................................................... 40 4.1.4 Revenue Channels .................................................................................................. 42 4.1.5 Main cost ............................................................................................................... 44 4.2 MANCHESTER UNITED ........................................................................................................ 45 4.2.1 Organisation structure ........................................................................................... 45 4.2.2 Sporting Performance ............................................................................................ 46 4.2.3 Financial Performance ........................................................................................... 47 4.2.4 Revenue Channels .................................................................................................. 48 4.2.5 Main cost ............................................................................................................... 50 4.3 BAYERN MUNICH ............................................................................................................... 52 4.3.1 Organisation structure ........................................................................................... 52 4 4.3.2 Sporting Performance ...........................................................................................