An economic framework for assessing the impact of injuries in professional football

Abstract

The process of risk management, which is used throughout industry and commerce, involves identifying work activities and hazards and estimating, evaluating and controlling the associated risks. Within professional football, injury rates are several orders of magnitude higher than those reported in other occupations. This sector, therefore, provides an ideal organisational setting for developing and testing theories of health and safety management. A major risk for clubs arises from players being unavailable for selection through injury, with the possible effect that this may have on the clubs’ playing and financial performances. A statistically based risk management model, which utilised four relationships involving the parameters of team-quality, team-performance, club-turnover and club-salary, was developed. The model was based on data from 91 league clubs in English professional football over the seasons 1993/1994–1997/1998. Significant ( P<0.01) strong ( r=0.80–0.97) correlations were obtained for four log-log relationships between the four parameters. The model, which incorporated a player quality variable, has been demonstrated to describe and assess the impact of players’ injuries on clubs’ playing and financial performances. It is proposed that the model could therefore be used as a basis for cost-benefit analyses of injury prevention strategies in professional football. The results presented support earlier reports, which describe the impact of accidents to employees on the financial performance of their employers. Similar economic frameworks may also be applicable within other organisational settings for assessing the costs of accidents and for use in cost benefit analyses.