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Institute
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 motives, roles and implications of football club investors, and to provide recommendations for further research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents an integrative literature review by identifying relevant English articles based on the search terms investor, owner, investment, ownership, shareholder and stakeholder in combination with soccer or football. Around 2,431 articles were reviewed. A total of 129 relevant articles was analyzed and synthesized within eight subject areas.
Findings
Investors in professional club football is a young research stream with a clear European focus. Investor motives and roles are diverse and implications are multidimensional. Investors mostly aim for indirect returns rather than pure profit- or win-maximization.
Research limitations/implications
Football clubs comprise an own investment class for which the identified, unique specifics must be considered to develop a financially successful investment model. Thorough academic research of investors' inherent characteristics, investor-club pairings and the pillars of long-term strategies for successful investor-club liaisons are avenues of future research. Furthermore, the results illustrate the need for research outside of Europe.
Originality/value
The paper is the first systematic, integrative review of existing literature in the domain of equity investments into professional club football. The findings genuinely show that, depending on the investor type and ownership structure, investors have a wide impact in professional club football.
The management of football clubs has increasingly become a complex endeavour due to their evolution into multifaceted enterprises and the rising complexity of stakeholder relationships. Clubs vary in their ability to navigate this complexity, making management quality a decisive factor in gaining a competitive edge. The 2024 edition of the FoMa Q-Score ranking builds on the framework developed by ZÜLCH & PALME (2017), evaluating management quality across four key dimensions: Sporting Success, Financial Performance, Fan Welfare Maximization, and Leadership & Governance. These dimensions, as confirmed by leading football executives (CRUZ, SCHREGEL & ZÜLCH, 2022), provide an objective assessment of the critical success factors for professional football clubs.
The increased competition at the top of the Bundesliga in the 2023/2024 season has reinforced the business model of German football, underscoring that sporting success alone is not enough to come out as a top-tier club in this encompassing ranking. Achieving long-term competitiveness and stability requires a solid financial foundation, effective fan engagement, and strong leadership from club executives. As the league progresses beyond the pandemic era, these trends reflect a lasting and sustainable shift. With forthcoming changes in European competition formats and the associated increases in revenues, clubs are strategically position-ing themselves for enduring success. The FoMa Q-Score, acknowledged in both academic and practical spheres, continues to offer valuable insights. This tool enables clubs to benchmark their strategies against peer group clubs and beyond, ensuring they maintain or enhance their competitive standing.
In recent times, the management of football clubs has evolved into a notably intricate task, owing to their transformation into football enterprises and the influx of a rising multitude of stakeholders within the industry. The ability among clubs to handle this increased complexity varies, making the quality of management a key factor in whether they can cope with this complexity and have an advantage or a disadvantage in competition. This new 2023 edition of the FoMa Q-Score ranking builds on the framework established by ZÜLCH & PALME (2017), which comprehensively assesses management quality along four dimensions, namely Sporting Success, Financial Performance, Fan Welfare Maximization and Leadership & Governance, in order to perform a longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of the German professional foot-ball clubs’ management quality. As attested by senior executives of prominent football clubs, these dimensions possess the capability to objectively measure pertinent success factors of a professional football club (CRUZ, SCHREGEL & Zülch, 2022). Ultimately, the performance across all dimensions, collectively termed as the FoMa Q-Score, serves as an objective measurement of a club's managerial excellence. Consequently, the FoMa Q-Score has gained firm traction as a well-established management tool both in academics and in practical application, partic-ularly accentuated by the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its robust scholarly valid-ity was underscored by the inclusion of this tool in the esteemed "Sports, Business and Man-agement" journal in 2020. From a practical standpoint, it is evident that football managers with a vested interest have already started leveraging our findings, which comprehensively encapsulate the COVID-19 impacts on financial and non-financial aspects, as showcased in this latest, seventh edition. This enables them to discern actionable insights for benchmarking their club's frameworks, aiming to regain ground or uphold their competitive positions.
Zielsetzung:
Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekts evaluierte ein Forschungsteam der HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management und der Universität Leipzig die Nachhaltigkeit der Klubs der deutschen Fußball-Bundesliga. Der Fokus dieses Football Fact Sheet liegt auf der Erarbeitung eines Modells zur Professionalisierung des Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement und der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung für die Klubs der 1. und 2. Fußball-Bundesliga, welche als Empfehlung an die DFL Arbeitsgruppe Nachhaltigkeit“ zu verstehen ist.
Schritte der Modellentwicklung: Die Modellentwicklung folgt einem praxisnahen Ansatz und basiert zunächst in erster Linie auf organisationstheoretischen Best Practices zum Aufbau von internen Managementprozessen. Darüber hinaus finden Empfehlungen bestehender CSR-Berichterstattungs- und Managementleitfäden für Unternehmen Berücksichtigung in der Modellentwicklung. Des Weiteren werden die Ergebnisse der Football Factsheets #05/2021 („Außenwahrnehmung“ zur Nachhaltigkeitsperformance) und #06/2021 („Innensicht“ zum Nachhaltigkeitsverständnis und zur Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation) berücksichtigt.
Ergebnisse: Eine Professionalisierung im Nachhaltigkeitsbereich muss entlang einer klaren Nachhaltigkeitsvision entwickelt werden, und benötigt ein stringentes, in die Geschäftsprozesse der Klubs integriertes, ganzheitliches Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement. Eine klare Vision und ein ganzheitliches Management sind Befähiger (Enabler) für die Ergebnisse eines professionellen Nachhaltigkeitsmanagements. Das durch die HHL ausgearbeitete „Corporate Accountability“-Modell etabliert einen dreistufigen Ansatz entlang von Vision, Management und Ergebnissen, welcher mittels klar definierten Umsetzungsschritten zielführend in jedem professionellen Fußball-Klub implementiert werden kann.
Am 14.12.2021 war es endlich soweit. Die Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) verkündete den Beschluss der DFL-Mitgliederversammlung, dass Nachhaltigkeit zum Lizenzierungskriterium für die 1. und 2. Fußball-Bundesliga werden wird. Dies ist als Meilenstein zu werten, da die deutsche Fußball-Bundesliga damit als erster großer Ligaverband diesen Schritt gehen will. Der gefällte Beschluss ist eine Grundsatzentscheidung, welche nunmehr in mehreren Stufen umgesetzt werden soll, mit dem Ziel, erstmals eine lizenzierungsrelevante Auditierung der deutschen Profiklubs mit Blick auf deren Nachhaltigkeitsleistung zur Saison 2023/24 zu realisieren. Ein anspruchsvolles, nicht unrealistisches und vor dem Hintergrund der kommenden CSR-Directive notwendiges Ziel. Einer adäquaten Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung wird in der Implementierung eine Schlüsselrolle zukommen.
Zielsetzung:
Ein Forschungsteam der HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management analysierte die bisherige wissenschaftliche Forschung zu Investoren im professionellen Klubfußball. Die Ergebnisse wurden systematisch aufbereitet und Schlussfolgerungen gezogen. Das vorliegende Fact Sheet fasst die wesentlichen Erkenntnisse zu Motiven, der Rolle und der Strategie sowie den Auswirkungen eines Investorenengagements zusammen. Diese Erkenntnisse sind relevant für die Betrachtung von und den Umgang mit Investoren durch alle beteiligten Stakeholder. Stoßrichtungen für die künftige Forschung sowie das Management von Fußballvereinen im Hinblick auf deren (potenzielle) Investoren lassen sich ableiten.
Managing a football club has become much more complex in recent years, as the clubs have turned into football companies and a growing number of stakeholders have entered the in-dustry. The clubs’ capabilities to handle the increased complexity vary, turning management quality into a crucial competitive (dis-)advantage. This new 2022 edition of the FoMa Q-Score ranking builds on the framework established by ZÜLCH & PALME (2017), which comprehensively assesses management quality along four dimensions, namely Sporting Success, Financial Per-formance, Fan Welfare Maximization and Leadership & Governance, in order to perform a longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of the German professional football clubs’ manage-ment quality. As confirmed by high-level football club executives, these dimensions are able to objectively quantify relevant success factors of a professional football club (ZÜLCH, CRUZ, & SCHREGEL, 2021). Ultimately, the performance in all dimensions, referred to as FoMa Q-Score, indicates a club’s management quality. Consequently, the FoMa Q-Score has become a well-established management tool in science as well as in practice in recent years, even more so in light of the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The high scientific quality has been confirmed by the publication of this tool in the internationally renowned sports science journal "Sports, Business and Management" in 2020. From the practitioners’ perspective it can be observed that interested football managers are already making use of our findings, which now also re-flect the COVID-19 effects on financials and non-financials in this latest, 6th edition, and derive specific actions to benchmark their club’s setups in order to make up ground or defend their competitive positions.
How is sustainability concerning ESG considered and assessed in German professional football?
(2021)
The German Football League (Deutsche Fußball Liga) officially prioritized sustainability, in terms of ecological, social, and governance, in early 2021, proving the topic should permeate club strategy and be used as an underlying approach for added value and competitive advantage. Starting from the league and club levels, the status quo of sustainability implementation is examined. Next, the correlation between competitive advantage for professional football clubs and sustainability procedures is presented.
Based on the literature analysis, a new 5-step Sustainability Development Phase established a concrete plan and direction for clubs for easier application of sustainability measures. With the vast gap between receiving a certified sustainable rating and implementation of sustainable approaches in the Bundesliga, the 5-step Sustainability Development Phase provides a simple framework for clubs to follow from Contributing, Tracking, Reporting, and Certifying.
Managing a football club has become much more complex in recent years, as the clubs have turned into football companies and a growing number of stakeholders have entered the industry. The clubs’ capabilities to handle the increased complexity vary, turning management quality into a crucial competitive (dis-)advantage. This new 2021 edition of the FoMa Q-Score ranking builds on the framework established by ZÜLCH & PALME (2017), which comprehensively assesses management quality along four dimensions, namely Sporting Success, Financial Performance, Fan Welfare Maximization and Leadership & Governance, in order to perform a longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of the German professional football clubs’ management quality. As confirmed by high-level football club executives, these dimensions are able to objectively quantify relevant success factors of a professional football club (ZÜLCH, CRUZ, & SCHREGEL, 2021). Ultimately, the performance in all dimensions, referred to as FoMa Q-Score, indicates a club’s management quality. Consequently, the FoMa Q-Score has become a wellestablished management tool with high practical relevance in recent years, even more so in light of the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interested football managers can make use of our findings, which now also reflect the initial COVID-19 effects on financials (for months of Mar20 - Jun20) and non-financials (for the full season 2020/21) in this latest edition, and derive specific actions to benchmark their club’s setups in order to make up ground or defend their competitive positions.
Ausgangspunkt der Betrachtung:
Der deutsche Profifußball steht vor großen finanziellen Herausforderungen. Eindrucksvoll wie nie offenbaren die ökonomischen Folgen der Corona-Pandemie die seit langer Zeit vorhandenen Finanzierungslücken in den Bilanzen der Fußball-Bundesligisten. Was vor dem Hintergrund eines rasanten Umsatzwachstums in den 2010er Jahren noch verschleiert werden konnte, wird derzeit umso eindrücklicher offensichtlich: die Clubs haben ein Finanzierungsproblem. Zwar können KfW-Darlehen und Landesbürgschaften derzeit den kurzfristigen Kapitalbedarf noch decken, indes offenbarte eine detaillierte Analyse der Finanzkennzahlen der Erst- und Zweitligisten bereits vor dem Eintreten der Pandemie die wirtschaftlichen Schwächen zahlreicher Bundesligisten.
Der mittelfristige Kapitalbedarf ist immens, negatives Eigenkapital wird mehr zur Regel statt zur Ausnahme. In Folge dessen werden vermehrt Stimmen innerhalb der Fußballclubs und im Umfeld der Bundesliga laut, welche eine weitere Öffnung der Clubs für externe Investoren fordern. Nur so kann eine langfristig Perspektive für das Produkt Bundesliga geschaffen werden. Ebenso ist das Interesse auf Investorenseite an einer finanziellen Beteiligung an den Bundesligaclubs aus unterschiedlichen Motiven derzeit sehr hoch. Zum einen scheint die Attraktivität des Produkts Bundesliga trotz Geisterspielen während der Pandemie national wie international ungebrochen, zum anderen sind die hinter den Clubs stehenden Geschäftsmodelle - gerade im Vergleich zu vielen konkurrierenden Clubs der anderen europäischen Top-Ligen - bisher noch vergleichsweise solide in finanzieller Hinsicht aufgestellt. Angesichts dessen und der krisenbedingten Wertverluste bei den Profifußballclubs erhoffen sich viele Investoren einen günstigen Einstieg in die Fußball-Bundesliga. Vor diesem Hintergrund scheint es geboten, dass sich die Fußballclubs der ersten und zweiten Bundesliga auf potentielle Verhandlungen mit Investoren adäquat vorbereiten. Basierend auf den wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen zu den Themen "M&A Due Diligence", "Investoren im Profifußball" und "Strategisches Management unter Unsicherheit" lässt sich eine Orientierungshilfe für deutsche Fußballclubs für den schwierigen Investorenfindungsprozess entwickeln. Das sogenannte Football Management Investment Modell, kurz FoMa I-Modell stellt sicher, dass die Clubs die Anforderungen potentieller Investoren erfüllen können, wodurch sich die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer erfolgreichen Transaktion zu einem angemessenen Preis erhöhen lässt (HOLZINGER, 2004).
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