Foreign players, coaches, and the politics of belonging: strengthening citizenship in Czech football

This article analyzes whether having more foreign players influences the performance of football clubs. We do so by comparing a cross section of close to 1,000 football clubs all over the world. We find that, on average, those clubs in leagues with more foreign players display better results in the world rankings. Nevertheless, within each league, where all clubs have the same regulations, having more foreign players has no effect. In the end, when all clubs have the same possibilities for importing better players from abroad, what matters is the financial power to choose the better ones.

<p>This paper examines the business expansion of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) entrepreneurs by acquiring European football clubs, focusing on Manchester City as a case study from the 2008/2009 to 2020/2021 seasons. Football, having evolved from a mere sport into a profitable industry, attracts significant investments from stakeholders, including billionaires and global corporations. This research highlights the increasing trend of Middle Eastern investors acquiring renowned football clubs facilitated by substantial financial resources and strategic management. The analysis reveals that Sheik Mansour's acquisition of Manchester City in 2008 catalysed a remarkable transformation in the club's financial performance, leading to substantial revenue growth and competitive success in domestic and European leagues. By employing financial ratio analysis, the paper evaluates the club's performance pre- and post-acquisition, revealing significant improvements in revenue streams, operational profitability, and overall financial stability. The findings underscore the potential benefits and strategic advantages of such investments in the football industry, contributing to the growing body of literature on sports management and financial strategies in contemporary business.</p>

From the sociological point of view it seems that interesting developments are taking place in sports institutions, including those involved in top-level sport. Sport has become professionlised 1 and commercialised (Heinila 1973), and in the process top-level sport has created its own labour markets with its own labour recruitment systems (Noll 1981), both nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, however, there are no cross-cultural studies that compare the sports institutions of various countries in this respect, and only a few efforts have been made to investigate scientifically some specific aspects of the issue (c. f. Luschen and Sage 1981; Olin and Laitinen 1981, Foreign players in Finnish basketball, unpublished research plan; Talamini and Page 1973; Wohl 1957). One explanation for this may lay in the widely made claim that international exchange in sport promotes international understanding (Heinila 1970) and therefore has positive effects in general. This has been taken for granted. In addition, the distribution of new branches of sport, of new equipment and facilities, and of new styles in sports clothing has been considered to enrich the physical culture of the recipient country, making it more multi-faceted. However, the following questions arise: 1. What other effects does international exchange, including the recruitment of professional star players, have on the national physical culture of the country concerned? 2. In addition to any positive effects they might have, do certain kinds of exchange influence sports institutions negatively in any way (Olin and Laitinen 1981, Foreign players in Finnish basketball, unpublished research plan)? 3. What are the reactions of sports institutions and their nuclear units towards, for example, the recruitment of paid foreign players? [In many societies one very key unit in competitive and top-level sport is the voluntary sports club (Seppanen 1977)].

The paper presents results of empirical study on elite foreign athletes working in Polish top table tennis clubs. It focuses on professional migration motives of elite table tennis players. In-depth interviews were carried out with 27 foreign table tennis players from 10 countries, who were playing for two top league clubs in Poland, and with 8 club coaches who were working with foreign players. Research was conducted during the 2014/2015 league season. The surveyed athletes came both from European countries of higher economic status than Poland and from outside Europe, from countries of lower economic status. A significant number of the surveyed players (11) arrived at Poland from China. The reasons why the surveyed players decided to come to Poland were varied and included both pull factors resulting from attractiveness of work abroad and factors pushing the players away from their home country sport system. Among the motives mentioned by the respondents, the major ones seem to be the desire to continue their professional career and to develop as players. Most of the respondents reported a few factors motivating them to come to Poland and play in the Polish table tennis league. Most often they gave several reasons altogether and it is not easy to classify them as exclusively one of the typo-logies of sport migrants presented in the literature. For some of the respondents, the decisive criterion was the high level of the Polish table tennis league, staying only slightly behind the French and German leagues. For others, good financial conditions offered by the Polish clubs and the possibility of improving living conditions were of key importance. Push factors were particularly important in the case of Asian players representing a very high level of sport skills, however slightly lower than the level of the Chinese national team.

To explore the benefits that foreign players bring to their clubs, this study used foreign players in the Big-5 European leagues (2013/2014-2017/2018 seasons) as samples and constructed a benefit model based on playing time and game points to evaluate the contribution of foreign players to their clubs in different leagues. The results showed the following: 1) from the 2013/2014 season to the 2017/2018 season, foreign players in the Bundesliga had the highest playing time benefits (PTBs) (0.526 ± 0.012), followed by foreign players in La Liga (0.523 ± 0.014), the Premier League (0.518 ± 0.011), Serie A (0.500 ± 0.012) and Ligue 1 (0.486 ± 0.011); 2) foreign players from South America had the highest PTBs in the Big-5 leagues, while those from Africa had the lowest PTBs. However, among the different leagues, there were no significant differences in the PTBs of foreign players from the same continent; 3) PTBs of foreign players in the forward position were lower than those of foreign players in the defender position; 4) the country that produced foreign players in the Big-5 leagues with the highest total PTBs was Brazil, followed by Argentina, Spain and France. Additionally, the top 15 countries by total PTBs qualified for either the 2014 or the 2018 World Cup Final.

The 14th running of the UEFA European Championships represented a watershed moment for football, and sport more broadly, in Eastern Europe. Whilst the competition itself might have been restricted to Europe’s elite national teams, world football’s gaze was drawn towards the joint hosts, Poland and the Ukraine, for the duration of the tournament. At this juncture, therefore, this paper seeks to consider the ‘place’ of football in Eastern Europe, and in this case, Poland specifically, by conducting an analysis of the economic value of Poland’s top division – the Ekstraklasa, and by examining the factors that influence foreign players’ decisions to migrate to that particular league. The paper identifies that whilst the Ekstraklasa might sit outside of Europe’s core football economies, it still offers much as a migration destination for certain sorts of players. However, the paper also shows that whilst the 2012 UEFA European Championships provided significant exposure for Poland in the football context, it is less clear if hosting the event will have a lasting effect on the development of Poland’s top league and its desirability to foreign players.

Resource deprivation, decision stakes, and the selection of foreign players in the NBA draft

This study examines whether the national diversity of players in multicultural teams affects the performance of professional soccer clubs. I analyze data from the top-tier leagues of six European countries – England, Belgium, Germany, Cyprus, Latvia, and the Netherlands – covering the 2015/2016–2020/2021 seasons. These leagues were selected because they impose no limits on the number of foreign players in senior squads, providing a clear view of this phenomenon. Using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimations in a forward stepwise approach, I find that national diversity does not correlate with club performance. However, the total number of foreign players is positively associated with performance, with each additional foreign player correlating with a 0.42% increase in win percentage. Moreover, the most complete model also indicates that an additional domestic league title is associated with a 0.99% increase in win percentage per title, while participation in the UEFA Champions League is associated with a 13.6% higher win percentage. Future research should explore the causal mechanisms underlying this relationship, examining how specific attributes of foreign players, such as playing style and experience, contribute to performance. Additionally, studies could investigate how management practices, particularly the adaptation of foreign players to a new country and culture, influence their impact on club success.

This paper aims to develop and validate the Player Contribution Indicator (PCI) based on players’ playing time per game and the point earned per game. At the same time, using the PCI to measure the foreign players’ contribution during a season and to roughly evaluate the comprehensive contribution of foreign players. And the main league studied is Premier League and LaLiga, two of the Europe’s Top 5 Leagues. Through analyzing the comparison among the PCI of foreign players and ranking the contribution level of each countries, it is shown that the general situation of foreign players in the league. And it has practical useful for the following research on player contribution level, foreign players’ policy setting and league level comparison.

Decision-Making Processes in Voluntary Football Clubs in Relation to External Counselling

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the impact of supply chain quality management on the performance of Premier League volleyball clubs, with the mediating role of organizational structure. Methodology: The research was descriptive-survey in nature, and the statistical population consisted of head coaches, coaches, and operational staff of the Iranian Premier League volleyball clubs. A total of 120 participants were selected through simple random sampling. The research tools included the Supply Chain Management Questionnaire by Mahmoudzadeh (2012), the Organizational Structure Questionnaire by Robbins (1989), and the Organizational Performance Questionnaire by Shafiei et al. (2013). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 and AMOS software. Findings: The results of the path analysis showed that supply chain quality management has a significant impact on the performance of Premier League volleyball clubs. The mediating role of organizational structure in this relationship was also confirmed. Additionally, the use of information technology as a reinforcing factor increased the positive effect of supply chain management on club performance. Fan satisfaction was significantly improved through better supply chain management and organizational structure. Conclusion: The findings indicate that supply chain quality management and organizational structure are two key factors in improving the performance of Premier League volleyball clubs. The use of information technology further enhances the positive effects of supply chain management. Sports managers should utilize these factors to increase efficiency and fan satisfaction.

The principal task of a professional club manager is to form a competitive team/athlete, which participate in official competitions and achieves the sporting successes expected by its federations, official members and fans. This fundamental task constitutes different systems to be run by a club manager starting from designing strategy (planning the vision, mission, and objectives of the sports club) to implement the mentioned elements. To implement the strategy managers need to have a clear club structure which is appropriate for better implementation of the strategy and get better performance. So that, the performance of the sports clubs in every corner of the world depends on the appropriateness of the sports club strategy and organizational structure (but these are not the only reasons for improved athlete’s performance). Organizational structure and strategies are some of the very important tasks which must be considered to formulate and manage the sports clubs. Organizational structure and strategy are not only important for sports clubs; they are also closely related to each other. The investigation of different researchers shows that structure has followed the strategy of the club. The purpose of this review article is to systematically review the literature and articles, which explore the particular issue of the relationship between strategy, organizational structure, and performance of sports clubs. The result and source reviewed for this article show, organizational structure and strategy have a connection in sports clubs. The relationship they have been discovered from different sources. This review article used secondary methods of data sources. The writers try to review different empirical and related kinds of literature on sports clubs strategies and organizational structure and their relationship. Finally, this systematic review is significant to show about strategy and organizational structure to the readers by summarizing what different scholars results look like. JEL: L83, Z20, L10 Article visualizations:

Research Question: The lens of moral disengagement (i.e. the cognitive restructuring of immoral behaviors to facilitate one’s own involvement by deactivating negative feelings) has been applied extensively to study integrity breaches in a number of contexts. However, despite the high and diverse prevalence of immoral behavior in (elite) sport, and the increasing research attention toward sport integrity, the explanatory potential of moral disengagement has not yet been fully exploited to better understand integrity breaches in the context of managing (elite) sport systems. As such, this study has two aims: (1) to demonstrate the utility of Bandura’s eight mechanisms of moral disengagement to explain integrity breaches in (elite) sport and (2) to conceptualize the four functions of integrity management as potential strategies to help sport managers remain morally engaged. Research Methods: Drawing on Albert Bandura’s seminal social cognitive theory of moral thought and action, this conceptual study develops an interdisciplinary understanding of moral disengagement from (sport) psychology, (sport) management, and (sport) ethics and integrity. Results and Findings: Our findings highlight how sport managers use a broad number of strategies to switch their morals off when engaging in immoral behavior. At the same time, integrity management tools and strategies can be implemented to maintain managers’ moral engagement. Implications: Discussing the use of moral disengagement in (elite) sport, this study is relevant to sport management scholars and practitioners who want to identify and mitigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms for integrity breaches in (elite) sport systems.

The Baseball Players' Labor Market

The current emphasis on women's health and gender egalitarianism in Taiwan means that urban women are joining sport and health clubs in pursuit of self-development. The aim in this study was to develop and analyze the motivations, constraints, and methods of lifestyle adjustment in regard to urban women's use of sport and health clubs in Taiwan. Participants were 373 women from 5 cities in Taiwan and tests were conducted using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the motivations, constraints, and lifestyle adjustments with regard to leisure sports positively affected women's participation in sports clubs. Specifically, although participation constrains acted as crucial antecedent variables influencing motivations to participate, they did not have any influence on lifestyle adjustments. Based on the results of this study, suggestions are made about management and policies of sport and health clubs.