Building Blocks for a Disequilibrium Model of a European Team Sports League

The paper presents two building blocks for elaborating on a disequilibrium economics model that fits with empirical evidence of a European team sport (soccer) league where teams are win-maximizing and operate under a soft budget constraint. Going beyond the standard equilibrium model justifies the introduction of price rigidity, heterogeneous talent units, and a differentiated economic behavior of clubs’ fans as compared to TV viewers. A European soccer league appears to be an economic regime with repressed inflation, characterized by a double excess demand on both labor and product markets. Step by step, the disequilibrium model is enriched with labor market segmentation between superstars and journeymen players, then a market for televised sport differentiating between free-to-air and pay-per-view TV channels.