Master’s degree thesis IDR950 Sport Management Squad stability, rather than squad age and homegrown players, seem to affect performance in Norwegian top level football Jonas Otto Jensen Number of pages including this page: 61 Molde, 09.06.2020 Mandatory statement Each student is responsible for complying with rules and regulations that relate to examinations and to academic work in general. The purpose of the mandatory statement is to make students aware of their responsibility and the consequences of cheating. Failure to complete the statement does not excuse students from their responsibility. Please complete the mandatory statement by placing a mark in each box for statements 1-6 below. 1. I/we hereby declare that my/our paper/assignment is my/our own work, and that I/we have not used other sources or received other help than mentioned in the paper/assignment. 2. I/we hereby declare that this paper Mark each 1. Has not been used in any other exam at another box: department/university/university college 1. 2. Is not referring to the work of others without acknowledgement 2. 3. Is not referring to my/our previous work without acknowledgement 3. 4. Has acknowledged all sources of literature in the text and in the list of references 4. 5. Is not a copy, duplicate or transcript of other work 5. I am/we are aware that any breach of the above will be 3. considered as cheating, and may result in annulment of the examination and exclusion from all universities and university colleges in Norway for up to one year, according to the Act relating to Norwegian Universities and University Colleges, section 4-7 and 4-8 and Examination regulations section 14 and 15. 4. I am/we are aware that all papers/assignments may be checked for plagiarism by a software assisted plagiarism check 5. I am/we are aware that Molde University College will handle all cases of suspected cheating according to prevailing guidelines. 6. I/we are aware of the University College’s rules and regulation for using sources Personal protection Personal Data Act Research projects that processes personal data according to Personal Data Act, should be notified to Data Protection Services (NSD) for consideration. Have the research project been considered by NSD? yes no - If yes: Reference number: - If no: I/we hereby declare that the thesis does not contain personal data according to Personal Data Act.: Act on Medical and Health Research If the research project is effected by the regulations decided in Act on Medical and Health Research (the Health Research Act), it must be approved in advance by the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethic (REK) in your region. Has the research project been considered by REK? yes no - If yes: Reference number: Publication agreement ECTS credits: 30 Supervisor: Geir Oterhals & Kjetil Kåre Haugen Agreement on electronic publication of master thesis Author(s) have copyright to the thesis, including the exclusive right to publish the document (The Copyright Act §2). All theses fulfilling the requirements will be registered and published in Brage HiM, with the approval of the author(s). Theses with a confidentiality agreement will not be published. I/we hereby give Molde University College the right to, free of charge, make the thesis available for electronic publication: yes no Is there an agreement of confidentiality? yes no (A supplementary confidentiality agreement must be filled in) - If yes: Can the thesis be online published when the period of confidentiality is expired? yes no Date: 09.06.2020 Preface With this thesis, the Master of Science in Sport Management at Molde University College is being completed. The 2 years of studying this degree in Molde has been very educational and enjoyable. The process of writing an academical thesis of this size alone has been new for me, but it has been very interesting, and I have learned a lot. It's very interesting to be able to conduct research on something which you truly desire to get some answers at. I have always been very passionate about Norwegian football, and by doing this research it has been interesting to see the football in this type of perspective. I will like to express gratitude to my tutors Geir Oterhals and Kjetil Kåre Haugen. They have guided me with their knowledge and expertise through the whole writing process of this thesis. They have given me feedback and useful pointers throughout the semester. It has been easy to communicate even though we were in different cities during the writing process. I will also express gratitude to my classmates that have been available for discussion when it has been needed. Solveig Straume do also deserve to receive recognition for motivating us students through this semester which have been quite special considering the circumstances around the pandemic. Thank you! __________________________________ Jonas Otto Jensen Nittedal, 09.06.2020 Summary The subject of this thesis was how Norwegian top division teams perform with young players. By looking at average age and sporting achievements, well as linking it to the aspects of talent development and homegrown players, the Norwegian top division of 2019 was examined. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how teams consisting of young players do perform, in both directions, and discover aspects which may affect the performances or not. The main focus areas chosen in this thesis to answer the purpose above is linked to foreign vs homegrown players, competition between local talents and bought in players, young team´s performances in other leagues, squad stability, peak performance age and the use of the Academy Classification 2019 report from NTF. The research method used in this thesis was quantitative, based on secondary data collection. The data collection does not include statistics based on not seeing the relevancy of including this in the research. The research aimed at identifying the meaningful patterns and trends from figures and tables, and not from inferential statistics. The results in this thesis showed that there were no trends in Eliteserien 2019 of teams performing either good or bad. Results linked to performance and average age of homegrown players and homegrown player and performance showed no correlation. Players used and performance (squad stability) was presented did show a trend of teams using less players performing better. Based on the quantitative research used to gather and examine an empirical research, it was concluded that there is no visible contextual relationship between sporting achievements and age/experience in Eliteserien 2019. Keywords: Eliteserien, football, average age, homegrown players, peak age, foreign players, squad stability 6 Table of Contents Preface………………………..………………………..………………………..…………. I Summary…………………….....………………………..………………………..………. II List of figures ........................................................................................................................ 1 List of tables .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 3 2.0 Problem formulation ................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Background ........................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Research question .................................................................................................. 7 2.3 Objective of the thesis ........................................................................................... 7 2.4 Structure ................................................................................................................ 8 3.0 Literature overview ................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Homegrown players .............................................................................................. 9 3.1.1 Foreigners vs homegrown players .............................................................. 11 3.2 Competition between clubs in buying young talented players ............................ 14 3.3 Peak performance ................................................................................................ 16 3.4 Squad stability ..................................................................................................... 21 4.0 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 24 4.1 Data Collection & Selection ................................................................................ 24 5.0 Results ..................................................................................................................... 26 5.1 Age and performance .......................................................................................... 27 Age and performance – trends ........................................................................................ 28 5.1.1 Swedish and Danish top division ................................................................ 29 5.2 Homegrown players and performance ................................................................ 31 Homegrown players and performance - trends ............................................................... 32 5.3 Age and homegrown players ..............................................................................