Why the men's UEFA Champions League reduces competitive balance in domestic football leagues: an empirical study of the French league
by Sébastien Dessus; Gaël Raballand
International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing (IJSMM), Vol. 20, No. 3/4, 2020

Abstract: This paper provides some empirical foundation in support of the observation that the men's UEFA Champions League (CL) reduces competitive balance in domestic football leagues. It relies on the assumption that clubs' optimal budgets result from win-maximising strategies, accounting for similarly driven budget decisions from competitors in the domestic league and are thus ultimately determined through a Nash equilibrium process. Using a panel of 23 professional French clubs over nine consecutive seasons (2004/2005-2012/2013), we estimate such optimal budgets, and measure the extent to which access to the Champions League amplifies budget inequalities between clubs. Our results suggest that the CL amplifies inequalities by a magnitude significantly larger than the direct income received from UEFA for participating in the CL.

Online publication date: Fri, 30-Oct-2020

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing (IJSMM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com