Accounting, Valuation and Duration of Football Player Contracts

"FRS 10" requires investments in player contracts by football companies to be capitalized and amortized. Given the high degree of uncertainty associated with such contracts, it is not clear that this treatment is consistent with asset capitalization criteria. The evidence provided in this paper does not support inconclusively this capitalization requirement in that it indicates weak association of investment in player contracts with three measures of future benefits. In particular, the duration of this association is at most two years, which is shorter than the duration implied by the amortization period reported by sample companies. Nonetheless, other findings suggest that market participants seem to agree with the treatment prescribed by "FRS 10". These results should be of interest to practitioner and standard setters who (axiomatically) regard intangibles acquired in an arm's length transaction as assets. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2005.