IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/macoma/vhtml10.3280-maco2025-001007.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Youth players management and financial performance in football industry

Author

Listed:
  • Simone Pizzi
  • Francesca Imperiale
  • Roberta Fasiello

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to the scientific debate on financial performance in football organizations by evaluating the enabling role of talent management practices. Grounded in Resource-Based Theory (RBT) and Transaction-Cost Economics (TCE), the analysis highlights the financial impact of strategic decisions made by sports directors. Using a two-step machine learning approach, the study reveals that investing in academies can yield higher financial returns. The findings confirm that teams adopting this strategy are better positioned to meet the financial objectives set by international and national regulators, such as UEFA and FIFA. By addressing the knowledge gap on the role of youth sector development in financial performance, this research offers valuable insights for both academia and sports management.

Suggested Citation

  • Simone Pizzi & Francesca Imperiale & Roberta Fasiello, 2025. "Youth players management and financial performance in football industry," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2025(1), pages 137-160.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:macoma:v:html10.3280/maco2025-001007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=77492&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:eme:mfppss:mf-09-2020-0478 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Donato Masciandaro & Ariela Caglio & Sébastien Laffitte & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2022. "Has Financial Fair Play Changed European Football?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 22189, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    3. repec:eme:mfppss:mf-04-2020-0213 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Emilios Galariotis & Christophe Germain & Constantin Zopounidis, 2018. "A combined methodology for the concurrent evaluation of the business, financial and sports performance of football clubs: the case of France," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 266(1), pages 589-612, July.
    5. Gianluca Risaliti & Roberto Verona, 2013. "Players' registration rights in the financial statements of the leading Italian clubs," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(1), pages 16-47, January.
    6. Arturs Kalnins, 2018. "Multicollinearity: How common factors cause Type 1 errors in multivariate regression," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(8), pages 2362-2385, August.
    7. John K. Malagila & Alaa M. Zalata & Collins G. Ntim & Ahmed A. Elamer, 2021. "Corporate governance and performance in sports organisations: The case of UK premier leagues," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 2517-2537, April.
    8. Warren Maroun & Wayne van Zijl & Rottok Chesaina & Robert Garnett, 2022. "The Beautiful Game: Fair Value, Accountability and Accounting for Player Registrations," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 32(3), pages 334-351, September.
    9. repec:eme:marpps:10222529200800012 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Di Minin, Alberto & Frattini, Federico & Bianchi, Mattia & Bortoluzzi, Guido & Piccaluga, Andrea, 2014. "Udinese Calcio soccer club as a talents factory: Strategic agility, diverging objectives, and resource constraints," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 319-336.
    11. Gianluca Risaliti & Roberto Verona, 2013. "Players' registration rights in the financial statements of the leading Italian clubs," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(1), pages 16-47, January.
    12. Alberto Manzari & Riccardo Savio & Marika Marandola, 2024. "The Impact of Corporate Governance on Financial Performance in Professional Sports Clubs: The Case of Italian Serie A," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 19(1), pages 173-173, February.
    13. Pedro Garcia‐del‐Barrio & Pablo Agnese, 2023. "To comply or not to comply? How a UEFA wage‐to‐revenue requirement might affect the sport and managerial performance of soccer clubs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 767-786, March.
    14. Duane W. Rockerbie, 2024. "Does the Dual Representation System of Player Agents in International Football Benefit Players? An Economic Analysis," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(7), pages 827-843, October.
    15. Andrea Rey & Francesco Santelli, 2017. "The Relationship between Financial Ratios and Sporting Performance in Italy’s Serie A," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(12), pages 1-53, November.
    16. Tom Webb & Matt Dicks & Daniel J. Brown & Jimmy O’Gorman, 2020. "An exploration of young professional football players’ perceptions of the talent development process in England," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 536-547, July.
    17. Webb, Tom & Dicks, Matt & Brown, Daniel J. & O’Gorman, Jimmy, 2020. "An exploration of young professional football players’ perceptions of the talent development process in England," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 536-547.
    18. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-08-2019-4126 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Joachim Prinz & Daniel Weimar, 2018. "The golden generation: the personnel economics of youth recruitment in European professional soccer," Chapters, in: Neil Longley (ed.), Personnel Economics in Sports, chapter 3, pages 47-71, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513571311285603 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Paul Andon & Clinton Free, 2019. "Accounting and the business of sport: past, present and future," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(7), pages 1861-1875, October.
    22. Craig A. Depken & Tomislav Globan, 2021. "Football transfer fee premiums and Europe's big five," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(3), pages 889-908, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maxence Franceschi & Jean‐François Brocard & Florian Follert & Jean‐Jacques Gouguet, 2024. "Football players in light of economic value theory: Critical review and conceptualisation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(2), pages 896-920, March.
    2. Syafiq Abdul Haris Halmi & Nur Syuhada Adnan & Suraya Ahmad & Noor Emilina Mohd Nasir, 2025. "Beyond the Scoreboard: Bibliometric Insights into Accounting and Financial Management in Sports Clubs and Associations," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 17(1), pages 252-266.
    3. Paulo Reis Mourao, 2016. "Soccer transfers, team efficiency and the sports cycle in the most valued European soccer leagues – have European soccer teams been efficient in trading players?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(56), pages 5513-5524, December.
    4. Budzinski, Oliver, 2024. "Financial regulation in sport championships as an anticompetitive institution," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 187, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    5. Mario Vaupel & David Bendig & Denise Fischer-Kreer & Malte Brettel, 2023. "The Role of Share Repurchases for Firms’ Social and Environmental Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(2), pages 401-428, March.
    6. Andreas Wagner & Denise Fischer‐Kreer, 2024. "The role of CEO regulatory focus in increasing or reducing corporate carbon emissions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1051-1065, February.
    7. Fischer, Denise & Greven, Andrea & Tornow, Mark & Brettel, Malte, 2021. "On the value of effectuation processes for R&D alliances and the moderating role of R&D alliance experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 606-619.
    8. Yusen Dong & Pengcheng Ma & Lanzhu Sun & Daniel Han Ming Chng, 2024. "Goodwill Hunting: Why and When Ultimate Controlling Owners Affect Their Firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 535-553, September.
    9. David Bendig & Andreas Wagner & Kevin Lau, 2023. "Does it pay to be science‐based green? The impact of science‐based emission‐reduction targets on corporate financial performance," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(1), pages 125-140, February.
    10. Wu, Tao & Delios, Andrew & Chen, Zhaowei & Wang, Xin, 2023. "Rethinking corruption in international business: An empirical review," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    11. Stephen J. Smulowitz & Didier Cossin & Hongze Lu, 2023. "Managerial Short-Termism and Corporate Social Performance: The Moderating Role of External Monitoring," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(4), pages 759-778, December.
    12. Erik Mooi & Qiong Wang & Steven Seggie & Sandy D. Jap, 2024. "The show must go on: The role of contract frames in safeguarding relationship continuity," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(6), pages 1842-1858, November.
    13. Arzi Adbi, 2023. "Financial Sustainability of For-Profit Versus Non-Profit Microfinance Organizations Following a Scandal," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(1), pages 57-74, November.
    14. Robert Becker Pickson & Peng Gui & Lirong Jian & Elliot Boateng, 2025. "The role of private sector investment in agriculture: A catalyst for sustainable development in Asia," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 113-128, February.
    15. Xiao, Shufeng & Yu, Tianjiao, 2024. "Underperformance duration and R&D internationalization: Institutional contingencies in an emerging economy," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(4).
    16. Ivan Rodrigo Rizzo Dias & George Bedinelli Rossi, 2017. "How far is World Champion from World Class? Institutional effects on a Brazilian non-profit sports organization," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 14(Special I), pages 24-44, January.
    17. Alekh Gour & Shikha Aggarwal & Subodha Kumar, 2022. "Lending ears to unheard voices: An empirical analysis of user‐generated content on social media," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(6), pages 2457-2476, June.
    18. Bendig, David, 2022. "Chief operating officer characteristics and how they relate to exploration via patenting versus venturing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 297-309.
    19. Muhammad Murtaza & Muhammad Ayyoub & Aisha Riaz & Riaz Ahmed, 2023. "Examining Linkages between Poverty Alleviation and Macroeconomic Performance in Pakistan," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 9(2), pages 665-678.
    20. Firman Jatnika & Nury Effendi & Erie Febrian & Mokhamad Anwar, 2019. "Determinants of Business Models Innovation of Islamic Bank in Indonesia," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 64-82.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:macoma:v:html10.3280/maco2025-001007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.