The people's game?

Football clubs are ostensibly uncomplicated organisations: they exist to facilitate participation in, and the spectating of, organised football. But beyond this plain statement there is a complex and contested debate about the objectives and purpose of these clubs. In England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland most football clubs are constituted as private limited companies with private shareholders. Yet they rarely make a profit their owners seeming more intent on `utility’ maximisation and despite a huge increase in revenues over the last 15 years the football industry remains financially unstable (Deloitte 2008; PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2007). In fact clubs are effectively regarded as social and cultural institutions by their supporters – their key community or stakeholder This raises the question: if football clubs are effectively not-for-profit institutions then would it not be more appropriate to structure them as such, as explicitly not-for-profit community benefit mutually owned organisations controlled by their supporters

Gambling to achieve success in professional sport: The case of the EFL Championship - a bubble waiting to burst?

This article quantifies the extent of clubs in the Championship of the English Football League (EFL) adopting the conventionally economically irrational decision to run a loss-making budget in the hope of achieving sporting success. It finds that this strategy was both prevalent and the most successful to achieve promotion. The research makes three contributions to the sports literature. The first is the quantification of the prevalence of this form of gambling. The second is the finding that, despite regulations to limit spending on wages, this gambling is rational in the non-economic sense because it is almost a necessary strategy to achieve promotion if the club had not been relegated from the Premier League in the previous season. The third extends debate suggesting that financial regulation in professional sports leagues can be viewed through the lens of internal legitimacy, whereby regulations are implemented in such a way as to be accepted by member clubs and have minimal impact on behaviour. It also suggests that regulation which directly targets the liquidity of football clubs with a minimum threshold limit might be more effective in ensuring their financial sustainability than the profit or wage restraints that have been applied hitherto as ultimately, as with other financial ‘bubbles’, it is a lack of cash that makes the financial position of a business unsustainable

Gambling in professional sport: the enabling role of regulatory legitimacy

Purpose: This article seeks to explain why organisations remain vulnerable to financial failure despite increasing financial regulation to improve governance. Using a case study of gambling and regulation in professional football in England, it introduces the concept of ‘regulatory legitimacy’ to show how this enables football clubs to gamble. Design/methodology/approach: The article quantifies the extent to which football clubs in the Championship of the English Football League (EFL) adopt a conventionally economically irrational decision to run a loss-making budget in the hope of achieving sporting success. The article postulates criteria for evidence of this form of gambling by overspending on playing talent with data from the clubs’ published financial statements. A pay-off matrix is developed to compare the intended and actual outcomes. Findings: The research finds that this strategy was both prevalent and the most successful to achieve promotion. Originality/value: This article makes three contributions. The first is the quantification of the prevalence of this form of gambling. The second is the finding that, despite regulations to limit spending on wages, gambling is rational in the non-economic sense because it is almost a necessary strategy to achieve promotion if the club had not been relegated from the Premier League in the previous season. The third contribution is the development of the concept of ‘regulatory legitimacy’ as a way to understand the process through which regulations are implemented yet are ineffective at curbing financial gambling

“True fan = watch match”? In Search of the ‘Authentic’ Soccer Fan.

Academics have created typologies to divide association football (soccer) fans into categories based upon the assumed ‘authenticity’ of their fandom practices. One of the main requirements of ‘authentic’ fandom has been assumed to be match attendance. The goal of this paper was to critically assess this assumption through considering how fans themselves talk about the significance of match attendance as evidence of ‘authentic’ fandom. In light of the fact that the voices of English non-league fans on the ‘authenticity’ debate have so far been overshadowed by the overbearing focus of much previous research on the upper echelons of English soccer, an e-survey was conducted with 151 members of an online community of fans of English Northern League (NL) clubs (a semi-professional / amateur league based in North East England). Findings revealed that opinion was divided on the constituents of ‘authentic’ fandom and match attendance was not deemed to be the core evidence of support for a club by 42% of the sample. Elias (1978) suggested that dichotomous thinking hinders sociological understanding and it is concluded that fan typologies are not sufficient for assessing the ‘authenticity’ of fan activities

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Corporate Community Involvement: a case for regulatory reform

The central thesis of this paper is that Corporate Community Involvement (CCI) is not a neutral activity with positive and mutual benefits for all involved. Rather, it is a much more complex activity which may also have negative impacts. Using Donaldson and Preston’s (1995) explanatory model of the stakeholding concept as a framework, this paper explores: (1) the practice of CCI in the UK (with some reference to US experience from which UK firms have drawn extensively), (2) the grounds on which it is justified, and (3) the material consequences of such activity for corporate governance. It concludes by arguing that there is a case for a review of the law on CCI to assess the need for fuller public disclosure so as to allow shareholders and other interested groups the opportunity to assess the impact and effectiveness of CCI more thoroughly

Not for sale: the development of and resistance to fan-owned sports clubs

Book synopsis: The Business and Culture of Sports provides global perspectives on such topics as the sustainable design of sports stadiums, the use of social media and advertising in sports marketing, the economic impact on cities hosting mega events, sports governance models, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, coaching and player development, gender representation in sports, sports violence and injury, and many others. Though aimed primarily at undergraduate students, this set is also a valuable resource for high school students as well as a general audience interested in the expanding world of sports studies