IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v11y2010i2p186-202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Top Clubs’ Performance and the Competitive Situation in European Domestic Football Competitions

Author

Listed:
  • Tim Pawlowski

    (Institute of Sport Economics and Sport Management, German Sport University Cologne, Germany, pawlowski@dshs-koeln.de)

  • Christoph Breuer

    (Institute of Sport Economics and Sport Management, German Sport University Cologne, Germany)

  • Arnd Hovemann

    (Ernst & Young AG in Essen)

Abstract

The increase in payouts to European football clubs appearing in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League (CL) in 1999-2000 had a lasting impact on the performance of top clubs in domestic football leagues. This policy change is treated as a natural experiment to compare the level of competitive balance in five top European leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France) before and after the turn of the millennium. Based on several competitive balance measures, this article reveals a significant decrease in competitive balance after the modification of the CL payout system.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Pawlowski & Christoph Breuer & Arnd Hovemann, 2010. "Top Clubs’ Performance and the Competitive Situation in European Domestic Football Competitions," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(2), pages 186-202, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:186-202
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002510363100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527002510363100
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1527002510363100?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arne Feddersen & Wolfgang Maennig, 2005. "Trends in Competitive Balance: Is there Evidence for Growing Imbalance in Professional Sport Leagues?," Working Papers 0012005, Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg.
    2. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "Income Inequality, Competitive Balance and the Attractiveness of Team Sports: Some Evidence and a Natural Experiment from English Soccer," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Football Economics and Policy, chapter 9, pages 182-201, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Allen R. Sanderson, 2002. "The Many Dimensions of Competitive Balance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 204-228, May.
    4. Craig Depken, 1999. "Free-Agency and the Competitiveness of Major League Baseball," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 14(3), pages 205-217, May.
    5. Andrew Zimbalist, 2003. "Competitive Balance Conundrums," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 161-163, May.
    6. Roger G. Noll, 2002. "The Economics of Promotion and Relegation in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 169-203, May.
    7. Loek Groot, 2008. "Economics, Uncertainty and European Football," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12924.
    8. Stefan Kesenne, 2000. "Revenue Sharing and Competitive Balance in Professional Team Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 1(1), pages 56-65, February.
    9. Kelly Goossens, 2006. "Competitive balance in european football: comparison by adapting measures: national measure of seasonal imbalance and Top 3," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 2(2), pages 77-122, Dicembre.
    10. Bernd Frick, 2007. "The Football Players' Labor Market: Empirical Evidence From The Major European Leagues," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(3), pages 422-446, July.
    11. Stephen Hall & Stefan Szymanski & Andrew S. Zimbalist, 2002. "Testing Causality Between Team Performance and Payroll," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 149-168, May.
    12. Stefan Késenne, 2006. "The Win Maximization Model Reconsidered," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 7(4), pages 416-427, November.
    13. Wladimir Andreff, 2006. "Broadcasting rights and competition in European football," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00270140, HAL.
    14. Arne Feddersen, 2006. "Economic Consequences of the UEFA Champions League for National Championships - The Case of Germany," Working Papers 0012006, Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg.
    15. Kelly Goossens, 2006. "Competitive Balance in European Football - Comparison by Adapting Measures: National Measure of Seasonal Imbalance and Top 3," IASE Conference Papers 0620, International Association of Sports Economists.
    16. J. Cairns & N. Jennett & P.J. Sloane, 1986. "The Economics of Professional Team Sports: A Survey of Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 3-80, January.
    17. Wladimir Andreff, 2006. "Broadcasting rights and competition in European football," Post-Print halshs-00270140, HAL.
    18. Kjetil K. Haugen, 2008. "Point Score Systems and Competitive Imbalance in Professional Soccer," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(2), pages 191-210, April.
    19. Brad R. Humphreys, 2002. "Alternative Measures of Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 3(2), pages 133-148, May.
    20. Luigi Buzzacchi & Stefan Szymanski & Tommaso Valletti, 2003. "Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Outcome: Open Leagues, Closed Leagues and Competitive Balance *#We thank the Editor and an anonymous referee for helpful comments," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 167-186, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oliver Gürtler & Markus Lang & Tim Pawlowski, 2015. "On the Release of Players to National Teams," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(7), pages 695-713, October.
    2. Marc Rohde & Christoph Breuer, 2016. "Europe’s Elite Football: Financial Growth, Sporting Success, Transfer Investment, and Private Majority Investors," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Andrzej Sznajder, 2010. "Równowaga sił konkurentów na rynku sportu profesjonalnego," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 10, pages 79-95.
    4. Dominik Schreyer & Sascha L. Schmidt & Benno Torgler, 2018. "Game Outcome Uncertainty and Television Audience Demand: New Evidence from German Football," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 19(2), pages 140-161, May.
    5. Grabar, Vsevolod & Sonin, Konstantin, 2018. "Financial Restrictions and Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues," CEPR Discussion Papers 13154, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Sittl, Roman & Warnke, Arne Jonas, 2016. "Competitive balance and assortative matching in the German Bundesliga," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-058, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Jeroen Schokkaert & Johan Swinnen, 2013. "It is Harder, not Easier, to Predict the Winner of the Champions League," LICOS Discussion Papers 32913, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    8. Jean-pascal Gayant & Nicolas Le Pape, 2012. "How to account for changes in the size of Sports Leagues? The Iso Competitive Balance Curves," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1715-1723.
    9. Egon Franck & Markus Lang, 2014. "A Theoretical Analysis of the Influence of Money Injections on Risk Taking in Football Clubs," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(4), pages 430-454, September.
    10. Oliver Budzinski, 2011. "The Institutional Framework for Doing Sports Business: Principles of EU Competition Policy in Sports Markets," Working Papers 108/11, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics.
    11. Martin Grossmann & Andreas Hefti & Markus Lang, 2012. "Aggregative Contests and Ex-post Heterogeneity: the Case of the UEFA Champions League," Working Papers 0161, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).
    12. Feddersen, Arne & Humphreys, Brad & Soebbing, Brian, 2012. "Cost Incentives in European Football," Working Papers 2012-13, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    13. Müller, Oliver & Simons, Alexander & Weinmann, Markus, 2017. "Beyond crowd judgments: Data-driven estimation of market value in association football," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(2), pages 611-624.
    14. Tim Pawlowski, 2013. "Testing the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis in European Professional Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(4), pages 341-367, August.
    15. Dubois, Marc, 2022. "Dominance criteria on grids for measuring competitive balance in sports leagues," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 1-10.
    16. Franziska Prockl & Dirk Semmelroth, 2018. "Perception Versus Reality - Competitive Balance In Major League Soccer From 1996 – 2016," Working Papers Dissertations 36, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    17. Budzinski, Oliver & Feddersen, Arne & Kunz-Kaltenhäuser, Philipp, 2023. "Zwischen Wettbewerbsorganisation und Wettbewerbsverzerrungen - Regelsetzungen durch europäische Fußballverbände," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 174, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    18. Antonio Ávila-Cano & Francisco Triguero-Ruiz, 2018. "The distribution of soccer leagues scores that generates the minimum of competitive balance: Truncated-Cascade Distribution," Working Papers 2018-04, Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center.
    19. Dorian Owen & Caitlin Owen, 2017. "Simulation Evidence on Herfindahl-Hirschman Indices as Measures of Competitive Balance," Working Papers 1715, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2017.
    20. 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.

    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. Meletakos, Panagiotis & Chatzicharistos, Dimitrios & Apostolidis, Nikolaos & Manasis, Vasilios & Bayios, Ioannis, 2016. "Foreign players and competitive balance in Greek basketball and handball championships," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 391-401.
    2. Dorian Owen, 2014. "Measurement of competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome," Chapters, in: John Goddard & Peter Sloane (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, chapter 3, pages 41-59, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Allen R. Sanderson & John J. Siegfried, 2003. "Thinking about Competitive Balance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(4), pages 255-279, November.
    4. Halicioglu Ferda, 2009. "Research on the Prediction of the likely Winners of the Euro 2008 Football Tournament," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 1-15, July.
    5. Wladimir Andreff, 2011. "Some comparative economics of the organization of sports: Competition and regulation in north American vs. European professional team sports leagues," Post-Print halshs-00677436, HAL.
    6. Pelnar, Gregory, 2007. "Antitrust Analysis of Sports Leagues," MPRA Paper 5382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Wladimir Andreff, 2011. "Some comparative economics of the organization of sports: Competition and regulation in north American vs. European professional team sports leagues," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00677436, HAL.
    8. Rodney Fort & Joel Maxcy, 2003. "“Competitive Balance in Sports Leagues: An Introductionâ€," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 154-160, May.
    9. Luigi Buzzacchi & Stefan Szymanski & Tommaso Valletti, 2003. "Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Outcome: Open Leagues, Closed Leagues and Competitive Balance *#We thank the Editor and an anonymous referee for helpful comments," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 167-186, September.
    10. Bulent Uyar & David Surdam, 2013. "Searching for On-Field Parity," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(5), pages 479-497, October.
    11. John R. Crooker & Aju J. Fenn, 2007. "Sports Leagues and Parity When League Parity Generates Fan Enthusiasm," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 8(2), pages 139-164, May.
    12. Stefan Szymanski, 2010. "The Economic Design of Sporting Contests," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Comparative Economics of Sport, chapter 1, pages 1-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Robert J. Lemke & Matthew Leonard & Kelebogile Tlhokwane, 2010. "Estimating Attendance at Major League Baseball Games for the 2007 Season," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(3), pages 316-348, June.
    14. Pedro Garcia-del-Barrio & J. James Reade, 2022. "Does certainty on the winner diminish the interest in sport competitions? The case of formula one," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 1059-1079, August.
    15. Bouvet, Patrick, 2011. "Que valent les compétitions sportives? Une nouvelle piste de réflexion," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 87(2), pages 205-222, juin.
    16. Warnke, Arne Jonas & Sittl, Roman, 2016. "Competitive Balance and Assortative Matching in the German Bundesliga," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145838, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Wladimir Andreff, 2006. "New Perspectives in Sports Economics: A European View," Working Papers 0605, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
    18. Wladimir Andreff, 2011. "Some comparative economics of the organization of sports: competition and regulation in north American vs. European professional team sports leagues," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 8(1), pages 3-27, June.
    19. Michela Pierini, 2011. "Diritti Tv E Competitive Balance Nel Calcio Professionistico Italiano," Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport, Centro di diritto e business dello Sport, vol. 7(2), pages 87-113, September.
    20. Nicolas Scelles & Christophe Durand & Liliane Bonnal & Daniel Goyeau & Wladimir Andreff, 2013. "My team is in contention? Nice, I go to the stadium! Competitive intensity in the French football Ligue 1," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 2365-2378.

    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:sae:jospec:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:186-202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: .

    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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.