...Mark Middling; Lisa Ferguson; Daniel Plumley; Rob Wilson Purpose Amid increasing focus on the governance of football clubs, this paper develops the first taxonomy of club owners, usually the dominant decision-makers, taking an impact-on-club based approach which can be significantly positive...

...Tiberio Daddi; Luca Marrucci; Niccolò Maria Todaro; Fabio Iraldo Purpose The sports industry, including professional football, is increasing its commitment to environmental sustainability both at an institutional and club level. However, there are no scientific studies in the literature...

..., and/or publication of this article. 06 03 2025 22 08 2025 27 08 2025 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited Licensed re-use rights only Stock return Football Sentiment effect Efficient market News and reversed news model In the modern competitive...

...John Nowland; Damien Cannavan; Jomo Sankara Purpose Relegation to a lower division is a big financial setback for football clubs and an emotional disaster for their fans. We investigate what relegated clubs did wrong, relative to clubs that survived the relegation battle. Design/methodology...

...Martin Kaden; Christian Brandt; Sebastian Björn Bauers; Gregor Hovemann Purpose Fans who invest time, money and passion in their relationship with fan objects are essential for the future of soccer. Despite this significance, there has been an increasing number of recent media reports on declining...

...Mark Middling; Daniel Plumley; Rob Wilson Purpose This paper aims to investigate the views of English football supporter representatives on the implicit club–supporter relationship, pertaining to a normative social contract which can be used to help improve football club governance. Design...

...Steve Bullough; Matteo Balliauw; Andrew Mills; Niall Fallon Purpose Belgium has consistently produced world-class footballers, outperforming many larger football associations despite having a smaller talent pool and fewer resources. This paper aims to (1) examine the development pathways...

...John Nowland; Jomo Sankara Purpose Professional football clubs, like other businesses, need to make investments in both human capital and fixed capital. We examine how investments in players, managers and stadiums drive football club performance. Design/methodology/approach Using data from...

...Luke Butcher; Mark Bryant Purpose Traditional sports have seen declining participation at many levels, with football being no different. This is occurring at a time when emergent technologies present new challenges, particularly to the crucial yet ignored cohort of millennials. Without meeting...

...Benedikt Kirsch; Tim Sauer; Henning Zülch Purpose Since the beginning of the 2000s, investors have more frequently invested into professional football clubs, thereby radically changing the industry landscape. This review's purpose is to analyze and synthesize the state of research to understand...

... of backstage activities related to football matches performed at San Siro Stadium in Italy. Design/methodology/approach Building on interviews on its management team's direct experience and on archival data, the authors depict the consequences of the pandemic in terms of corporate governance, accounting...

... on the Ligue 1 football clubs from the 2009/2010 season to the 2018/2019 data, the authors use the k-means classification to build archetypes of resource dependency and squad structure variables. The influence of resource dependency on squad structure is then analysed through a table of contingency...

...Enrico Supino; Maurizio Marano Purpose This article explores the value creation process from player sales in football to understand if the related capital gains correspond to significant increases in the stock value of selling companies. In addition, it aims to detect any potential drivers...

... largely understudied. Therefore, the present study aims to explore practitioners' perceptions of VR training in elite football and baseball, with a focus on the important factors, obstacles, perceived knowledge and practical use of the technology. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach...

... football league (LaLiga) by examining the moderating role of club size. The authors argue that introducing FFP positively impacted the financial performance of small clubs but increased the economic gap between large and small clubs. Design/methodology/approach A 12-year dataset covering 22 football...

...Chelsey Sara Taylor; Michael L. Naraine; Katie Rowe; Jonathan Robertson; Adam Karg Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the process of change in existing professional sport organisations as they initiate a women's team. Design/methodology/approach Three Australian Football League...

...Philipp Winskowski; Susanne Homölle Purpose On the example of professional football in Germany, this paper analyses the conflict about the punishment of fan misbehaviour within an agency-theoretical framework to cast light on the reasons for the ineffectiveness of the sentences and to show...

...Igor Perechuda; Tomaž Čater Purpose The presented study aims to identify and classify the value factors that influence the value of football clubs from the stakeholder perspective, while also discussing how these factors can affect the choice of valuation methods. The paper considers how value...

...Aurélien Francois; Nadine Dermit-Richard; Daniel Plumley; Rob Wilson; Natacha Heutte Purpose This paper analyses the effectiveness of UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) under the break-even requirement. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected from English and French football clubs...

...Matteo Balliauw; Jasper Bosmans; David Pauwels Purpose Football clubs invest in the implementation of scientific insights that improve the quality of youth academies. In the long run, clubs expect their youth academy investments to result in better trained players. The purpose of this paper...