The Impact of the Ownership Nature on Club's Investment Decisions;Empirical Evidence from the Top Professional Football Leagues in China and Europe
Although substantial investments on football clubs can bring short-term prosperity to professional leagues,they also result in long-term losses for many clubs due to their destructive interactions.The differences in the target functions pursued by different ownership types further aggravate the differences in club investment decisions,making some clubs suffer more serious losses.To confirm the impact of different ownership types on club investment decisions and to explore the driving force behind the"arms race"in professional sports leagues,this paper conducts an empirical study based on the unbalanced panel data of the CSL and top European football leagues from the 1998-2020 seasons.The results show that:1)Investments in member-owned clubs are significantly higher than those in private limited clubs,and the latter are significantly higher than those in publicly-listed clubs;2)Among private limited clubs,those with patrons invest significantly more than those without,and there is no significant difference between the former and member-owned clubs;3)The Financial Fair Play Act has narrowed the invest-ment gap among clubs with different ownership types,mainly through restricting over-investments by privately-held clubs with patrons and simultaneously increasing player investment by member-owned clubs.
professional sports leaguesprofessional sports clubsownership natureinvestment decisionsobjective functionover-investment
万方数据
