Abstract: In the recent years, many clubs in the biggest European soccer leagues have run into debts. The sports economic literature provides several explanation for this development, e.g., the league structure (open versus closed league), club constitutions, ruinous rat races between clubs....

Abstract: In the recent years, many clubs in the biggest European soccer leagues have run into debts. The sports economic literature provides several explanation for this development, e.g., the league structure (open versus closed league), club constitutions, ruinous rat races between clubs....

This paper develops a model of a professional sports league with network externalities by integrating the theory of two-sided markets into a contest model. In professional team sports, the competition of the clubs functions as a platform that enables sponsors to interact with fans. In these...

Third party money injections of benefactors (sugar daddies) function as a bailout mechanism for otherwise insolvent football clubs. The successful implementation of the new UEFA "financial fair play" regulations will abrogate this bailout mechanism. We develop a theoretical model of a...

The UEFA Champions League is an annual Pan-European football competition that takes place parallel to the domestic league competitions. The participation in the Champions League secures the teams large payments, which have steadily increased over the last decade. This paper develops a general...

This paper develops a model of a professional sports league with network externalities by integrating the theory of two-sided markets into a contest model. In professional team sports, the competition of the clubs functions as a platform that enables sponsors to interact with fans. In these...

This paper presents a two-period model of talent investments where two clubs compete with respect to a contest prize. We show that two qualitatively different types of equilibria are possible using a closed-loop approach with strictly convex costs: The large market club invests in both periods...

Comparisons between European and North American sports leagues have occurred over the years. In this paper, we attempt to bring these comparisons down to the essential elements -what has come to be called Rottenberg's (1956) invariance principle and theoretical insights into attempts to alter...

This paper outlines and compares the organizational structure of major sports leagues, explores the reasoning behind their formation, and derives implications for salary caps in European football. To understand why sports leagues have developed a specific organizational structure, one must take...

The release of players from a club to the national team often leads to a conflict concerning the duration of the players' stay with the national team. Based on a theoretical bargaining model, we examine whether intervention in this conflict by a governing body is desirable. We show that...