Measuring the Efficiency of Football Clubs Using Data Envelopment Analysis: Empirical Evidence From Spanish Professional Football

Professional football clubs have a special characteristic not shared by other types of companies: their sport performance (on the field) is important, in addition to their financial performance (off the field). The aim of this paper is to calculate an efficiency measure using a model that combines p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Isidoro Guzmán-Raja, Manuela Guzmán-Raja
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2021-02-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244021989257
Description
Summary:Professional football clubs have a special characteristic not shared by other types of companies: their sport performance (on the field) is important, in addition to their financial performance (off the field). The aim of this paper is to calculate an efficiency measure using a model that combines performance (sport and economic) based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). The main factors affecting teams’ efficiency levels are investigated using cluster analysis. For a sample of Spanish football clubs, the findings indicate that clubs achieved a relatively high efficiency level for the period studied, and that the oldest teams with the most assets had the highest efficiency scores. These results could help club managers to improve the performance of their teams.
ISSN:2158-2440