There are noticeable conceptual differences between competing concepts for organizing the highest level of European Football. One major conceptual controversy is concerned with the question whether fans have a stronger preference for (more) games between the top teams over a broad participation...

One of the most important social effects of the 2006 football World Cup was the feel-good effect. The present contribution is one of the first to deal with the development of a general theory for the management of feel-good effects and systematically analyses the influencing factors taking the...

The performance of Indian sportspersons in megaevents like Olympics and Asian Games pales into insignificance not only when benchmarked with equally populous China, but also when compared to smaller countries like Kenya, Jamaica, Japan to name a few. Manifesting as a saga of repeated...

We analyse the spatial attendance spillover applying spatial panel-data models with the Italian Football League data from 2001/2002 to 2016/2017. Our Quasi-Maximum Likelihood empirical results suggest that no significant spatial interaction was evident in earlier seasons (2001-2013), but modest...

Globalisation affects not only politics and the economy, but also sport, which has become significantly more international, competitive and financially powerful. This is particularly advantageous for most consumers or spectators. Especially top athletes benefit, while not so good athletes can...

Beginning with the seminal work in the field now known as sports economics (Rottenberg, 1956), concern over competitive balance has been a recurring theme. While the vast majority of the focus has been on popular professional team sports, a few studies have analyzed competitive balance in the...

We investigate the role of fatigue in soccer (football). Although this issue is important for the "productivity" of players and the optimal organization of national and international championships, empirical evidence is lacking. We use data on all the matches played by national teams in all the...

We propose a fundamental valuation model for sports clubs and stadia using discounted (adjusted) revenues. We argue that a sports club is a "quasi firm" that aims to balance budgets, achieve an efficient allocation of financial resources, and maximize revenues. Under this objective the sports...

This study investigates the presence and variation of home bias across different hierarchical levels in German men’s football. Based on an extensive dataset comprising 357,530 matches from the 2023/2024 season—collected via a Python script—the analysis includes match outcomes, attendance...

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...