Economic Consequences of the UEFA Champions League for National Championships - The Case of Germany

Qualifying for and participating in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) is associated with generating large revenue flows. The fear of the football associations, some journalists and fans is that a permanent financial and sporting imbalance will be created between clubs qualifying for the UCL and the remaining clubs. This paper analyses the consequences of the UCL on the national championship in the German “Bundesliga”. The first section shows a review of economic and sporting trends in the Bundesliga for the 1980-1997 period. Also main changes in the domestic championship are reviewed. In second section an analysis of the UCL with (a) regard to competitive balance and (b) with regard to general balance will be undertaken. An interesting question is whether clubs qualifying for the UCL differ from the other teams. Especially the question whether competitive balance changes when there is an imbalance in the financial situation of the clubs (enforced by the UCL) will be analyzed. The third section describes the regulatory mechanisms of the German Bundesliga like revenue sharing and the licensing system.