Financial Reporting in European Football Teams: A Disclosure Analysis of Player Registrations

Purpose – This paper critically analyses sustainable reporting and transparent valuation of the impairment test application (IAS 36) on intangible assets (IAS 38) in football clubs that prepare financial statements in accordance with IAS/IFRS. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the financial statements of 13 companies listed on the STOXX Europe Football Index for a five-year period (from 2012 to 2016), following a three-step procedure. It focuses on the governing guidelines’ implementation relating to the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (in September 2009), which was subsequently implemented in 2011/2012. Findings – The research reveals some interesting and some controversial findings. Several football clubs exhibit a low level of disclosure and others a high one. Therefore, this study focuses on specific areas that primarily relate to economic and financial communication, as financial statements need to provide contextual disclosure. Simultaneously, the information disclosed to investors underlines the need for sustainable financing and social decision-making. Research limitations/implications – The first limitation of the study regards the sample size; the number of observations is rather small given the exclusion of Turkish and Polish teams due to non-integral application of IAS/IFRS principles as well as other small-sized companies that do not fit the required company profile. The second limitation is that the players’ registration figures are analysed as aggregate values from a club-level perspective. Originality/value – The study pioneers constructive criticism in relation to financial documentation and reporting produced by football companies. IAS/IFRS require further development in order to adapt typologies of specific sustainable business models for all the companies in the football industry

Mission Statements in Top Higher Education Institutions—What Do They Have in Common?

Universities started to play a crucial role in the social and economic life, as in the knowledge economy they contribute highly with the scientific, technological and economic knowledge they produce to the development of businesses and of the society as a whole. It is acknowledged that “higher education is facing un-precedent challenges in defining its role in society and in the economy” (OECD 2012)asuniversities have to perform for both internal stakeholders (Genc 2012; Nicolescu 2011), as well as for external stakeholders, by participating to the improvement of different categories of services at society level (Lopez and Martin 2018; Androniceanu et al. 2020). In such a context, universities started to use business like practices, so that to be able to adjust their management to the new challenges posed by the environment. This involves the internalization of strategic planning principles and activities at university level, that also involves the design of missions and their written form, mission statements. The paper aims to provide a thematic oriented understanding of the missions of top universities in the world according to the content of their mission statements