Dr Francesco Addesa

This paper is the first to empirically analyse the determinants of stadium attendance demand in the men’s UEFA Champions League, the most prestigious competition in club football. The analysis covers 1,234 matches from 2009/10 to 2018/19 across 32 nations. The results show that outcome uncertainty and competitive intensity are not significantly associated with higher attendances, but the level of team quality is, for all fans, and the presence of star players is, for fans of clubs outside the top five European leagues. The empirical analysis—based on Tobit model regressions—enables an evidence-informed discussion of the competition structure of the UCL and the highly charged debate surrounding a potential European Super League. The article also offers insights for the wider body of academic knowledge on stadium attendance demand, by adding rare analysis of an international cup competition and an improved understanding of the connection between star players and fan interest in European football.

This study aims to contribute to the recent literature on the effects of COVID on football teams’ performance, focusing on the impact of ghost games on offensive and defensive technical efficiency. Using season-level data for the top 5 European leagues, a novelty for efficiency studies on football, the analysis compares the ten seasons played before the pandemic outbreak with the only season (2020–21) almost entirely played behind closed doors. A further novel contribution is the methodology – conditional order-m – applied to calculate efficiency scores. Our results show that in the post-COVID season both offensive and defensive efficiency significantly increased for away games, whereas for home games offensive efficiency shows a very slight increase, and defensive efficiency remains basically unchanged. These findings are valid for all the five leagues and provide evidence of a generalized reduction in the home advantage.

Abstract

From a theoretical point of view, the link between workplace diversity and performance in a high‐skilled context is ambiguous. Likewise, empirical research at the firm or plant level finds inconclusive and context‐ specific results. Using a detailed database that covers all the 3,999 matches played by Italian Serie A teams (firms) over a 10‐season period, our results reveal a substantial and robust negative effect of fractionalization on performance, whereas no effect is found for polarization. This article also highlights how the negative effect of fractionalization depends on the nature of the tasks to be completed, the wealth of the teams and the level of workers' experience. This work reveals some myopia in hiring practices and suggests that firms should make better decisions in choosing the optimal mix of workers.

The sudden rise of coronavirus in the world had various effects on the sports industry. Nevertheless, sports organizations around the world adopted new and different methods to manage the crisis, which in turn, enriched global knowledge of sports management. Also, some industries changed their products and adapted their structure and performance according to the new situation. The new Experiences gained during the pandemic showed that sports organizations need crisis management programs to deal with crises in the future. So, it’s necessary to manage sports organizations with a different perspective and new plans to encounter future needs and problems. To do this, sports managers must learn from the experiences of the pandemic era and be prepared to predict the world in the future, and better manage their organizations.

Research Question This is the first article to empirically examine what drives TV audience demand for the UEFA Champions League (UCL) in major European markets. It then asks: How well does the tournament structure meet the preferences of TV viewers? Research Methods The article analyses the UCL from 2013/14–2018/19, considering TV viewing figures for all televised games from the group stages through to the finals in six nations – France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. It then analyses match data in the UCL since its most recent tournament restructure in 2003/04, along with Ballon d’Or results and UEFA Club Coefficient rankings, to assess the efficiency of the current tournament structure. Results and findings Uncertainty of outcome is not significantly associated with the size of TV audiences for the UCL, but both the presence of star players and team quality are. However, analysis of match data reveals that the current structure of the UCL does not maximise the number of star players or top clubs that progress to the latter stages of the tournament. Implications These findings enable UEFA and other sport competition organisers to make evidence-informed decisions about how to structure competitions, while balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders. They also contribute to the small but growing body of empirical work that seeks to identify the key drivers of TV demand for sport – increasingly the dominant form of revenue for many sport organisations.

This research aims to investigate the causes of the steady decline experienced by Italian basketball in the latest 20 years. Through the application of a qualitative methodology of six in-depth interviews with different types of professionals operating in Italian basketball, themes like poor management decisions, sugar daddy ownership model and the side effects of the Bosman ruling are discussed, alongside the critical economic situation of the country followed by poor investment choices. Results suggest that a more rigorous strategic planning including investments in facilities and youth academies and a general improvement of the quality of the product and its commercialization leading to more remunerative TV rights deals are some essential elements that Italian basketball owners and executives must address.

Background. Following the successful outcomes of the national team, that finished third in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and the positive club performance in the UEFA competitions at the beginning of the new millennium, Turkish football was expected to reaffirm and further develop in the following years, exploiting also the favourable economic conditions. However, its growth and evolution did not meet the expectations, and in the latest years several managerial aspects of the Turkish Football Federation have begun to be questioned, which has led the federation itself to reform football in areas such as foreign players’ quota, financial requirements and stadiums. Objectives. The main aim of this article is to identify and discuss these issues and how effective the reforms implemented by the Turkish Football Federation have been in the short run. Methods. The research is done through the application of the historical method and the use of secondary data. Results. Our results show that these reforms do not seem to have had a significant impact so far. Conclusion. While some of the reforms likely need more time for their effects to be tangible, the general impression is that Turkish football would need a different approach and more incisive policy interventions.

Research question: While considerable research on production and efficiency is mostly on all European football leagues, corresponding evidence relating to the Italian Serie A is limited. To address this imbalance, this paper analyses the technical efficiency and effectiveness of Italian football clubs, taking into consideration the impact of the Calciopoli corruption scandal in 2006. This allows assessment of how clubs’ efficiency and effectiveness were affected by the sanctions inflicted on the clubs involved in the scandal. Research methods: Utilising a panel dataset comprising season aggregated match statistics over ten seasons from 2000/01 to 2009/10, this paper estimates a production function for the league and, then, calculates the relative offensive and defensive efficiency and the football effectiveness of 36 teams. To achieve this, DEA models have been used to calculate the frontiers of efficient production. Results and findings: The results partially confirm the evidence of the literature but they also reveal how playing style changed, emphasising the importance of attacking play at the expense of defensive play in Italian Serie A. Clubs that suffered a points deduction following their involvement in the Calciopoli scandal changed their usual tactical behaviour, presumably to compensate for the impact of these punishments. Implications: League authorities should be aware that the clubs’ performance has been affected following the Calciopoli scandal sanctions, which may have contributed to the spectator decline. Furthermore, we identify offensive efficiency as the key determinant of team success, which is a helpful insight for team management with respect to their transfer and salary policy.

This article investigates the determinants of the TV audience for Italian soccer in seven Serie A seasons (2008-2009 to 2014-2015). Italian viewers have committed behavior and that outcome uncertainty does not have an impact on the TV audience. When choosing whether to watch a match involving teams other than their favorite team, Italian consumers are attracted by both the aggregate quantity of talent and the matches involving teams at the top of the table. An increase in the TV demand is driven by an enhancement in the performance of the top clubs and in the quality of the entertainment.

Cultural diversity features prominently in management studies. A diverse range of skills and perspectives can produce innovation and a greater variety of solutions to day to day problems. At the same time, however, the same heterogeneous approaches and experiences can result in communication and coordination problems, lack of trust and intra/intergroup conflict. We analyse a newly constructed dataset on team composition and performance for 29 teams, 1,238 players and 1,899 matches in the Italian Serie A with information on the players’ place of origin, talent, position, demographics, manager experience and other factors. We compute indices of fractionalization and polarization and find that both measures of diversity have a strong and persistent negative effect on game scores and player objective performance ratings. This research provides new important insights into the drawbacks of cultural heterogeneity in the workplace and calls for more indepth analyses of the nexus diversity-performances on team performance.

This paper uses data from Italian Serie A football to analyse the technical efficiency of Italian football clubs, utilising a panel dataset comprising season aggregated match statistics over ten seasons from 2000/01 to 2009/10 inclusive. While there has been considerable research on production and efficiency in most of the major European football leagues, corresponding evidence relating to Serie A is limited. This paper addresses this imbalance, estimating a production function for the league and the relative efficiency of 36 teams, taking into consideration the impact of the Calciopoli corruption scandal in 2006. To achieve this, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models have been used to calculate the frontiers of efficient production. The results highlight how playing style has changed in response to the corruption scandal, emphasizing the importance of attacking play in Serie A.

This paper investigates the determinants of TV audience for Italian soccer. After a review of the literature concerning the key factors driving the demand for sport, we analyse SKY’s audience figures for 7 Serie A seasons (from 2008-09 to 2014-15). Applying different OLS specifications, we show that Italian viewers have a committed behaviour and outcome uncertainty does not have a significant impact on TV audience. In addition, when choosing whether to watch a match of teams other than their favourite team, Italian consumers appear to be particularly attracted by both the aggregate quantity of talent present and by matches involving teams at the top of the table. This suggests that, in the Italian context, an increase in the TV demand is mainly driven by an enhancement in the performance of top clubs and in the quality of the entertainment rather than in competitive balance.

This article aims to analyse the impact of the main determinants of match-day stadium attendance for seven seasons—2012–13 to 2018–19—of the Italian football Serie A. The main element of novelty is that the dataset is split into three sub-categories based on the pre-season fans’ expectations to verify whether the impact of attendance determinants varies depending on teams’ expected performance. Our results—based on Tobit model regressions—identify some significant differences across the three subsets. However, the difference that seems to be the most significant revealed a common preference of Italian fans towards higher quality opponents.

This article analyzes the impact of the main determinants of stadium crowds in seven seasons of Italian Serie A football – from 2012-13 to 2018-19. The new element compared to the previous literature is given by the fact that the dataset has been divided into three subgroups on the basis of the pre-season expectations relating to the final position of the individual teams, in order to verify whether the impact of these determinants varies depending on the expected performance of a team. The results – obtained through a regression analysis based on the Tobit model – identify some significant differences between the three subgroups. However, the differentiating factor that is apparently more significant actually reveals a common preference of Italian fans towards matches in which the visiting team is of a higher level. LANGUAGE: Italian

This article investigates the determinants of television audience for Italian Serie A football matches between 2012/13 - 2014/15 seasons (n=1079) using the AUDIBALL dataset. Specifically, we investigate the role of competitive intensity (CI) on TV demand by adapting a measure to incorporate both home and away teams competing for different prizes. Although we find significant positive impacts for all our CI indicators, our conclusion differs from previous work as the coefficients are small. Additionally, our results indicate a significant negative impact of uncertainty-of-outcome, supporting the “David vs Goliath” effect. Finally, our results show a significant positive impact from star quality suggesting Serie A should focus on star quality rather than competitive intensity.

This article investigates the impact of the competitive intensity on the stadium attendance for Italian soccer in three Serie A seasons (2012-13 to 2014-15). The central element of novelty concerning the existing literature is that fans expectations are also included among the explanatory variables of the Tobit model. Our results show that competitive intensity has a significant impact on match-day attendance in relation to all the sporting prizes but Europa League qualification. Moreover, we find evidence supporting the existence of reference- dependent preferences, where the attendance increases when the home team rank is higher than the pre-season expectations.

Nowadays Sponsorship is an important part of sports events. Sports sponsorship offers more benefits, more variety and also it’s a more powerful form of marketing. In general, sponsorship holds a unique position in the marketing mix because it is effective in building brand awareness, provides different marketing platforms and valuable networking and hospitality opportunities. Sponsorship marketing efforts can be influenced by culture. Especially when global sponsorship in sports which refers to sports events in different countries with different cultures, is under consideration. In such situations, sponsorship aspects can be affected by cultural obligations which are discussed in this article.

Research Questions: Digital transformations have brought changes to the consumption of football. Traditionally live televised football matches commanded total attention of viewers. With the proliferation of new media channels fans are now afforded to consume games anytime and anywhere, specifically by watching short highlights on-demand videos. Research Methods: We employ a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model to address endogeneity and estimate the determinants of viewership and engagement. The analysis, based on 2,268 observations, explores engagement metrics, video characteristics, and sports elements influencing demand. Additionally, we incorporate match attendance and comment volume as instruments for the number of likes on each video. Research and Findings: The model explains about 89% of the variance of the demand. The results indicate a significant positive association between views and likes, length of the videos, total number of red cards, total number of own goals, and uncertainty of outcome level, as well as the number of goals scored and the goal differences. A significant quadratic relationship between views, goals scored, and goals difference was observed, suggesting that the positive impact from both variables diminishes and, beyond a certain point, turns negative. Implications: We hold that YouTube highlights are an important aspect of the consumption of football. On-demand highlight clips have both continuations and transformations to traditional demand models. Its free availability on YouTube and the data affordances constitute a potential change in the mediatisation of sports, having deeper implications for monetisation and financial models.