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This article provides a plain language commentary on the distributive equity structure of the English Premier League (EPL) with the aim of introducing sport business practitioners to a foundational challenge facing professional leagues as they grow financially with market opportunities, namely financial inequality between clubs.

Introducing and discussing data from seasons 2009/10–2018/19, the article reveals that despite maintaining a consistent distribution of the EPL prize fund over time, the financial imbalance within the league has grown throughout the period.

The EPL's financial distributive equity is exacerbated by growing imparity in the acquisition of sponsorship revenues, the distribution of broadcasting revenues and the implications of policies concerning financial fair play and parachute payments, leading to a problematic differential in the talent distribution and win–wage relationship experienced by the top six teams and the remainder.

The EPL's market-driven continuation of its revenue allocation policies has led to a broadening financial imbalance, in favour of the top clubs, which could paradoxically undermine the financial security of the teams and league. Sport business practitioners should be familiar with this fundamental challenge for sport leagues that accompanies financial growth.

Whilst the percentage difference in prize fund allocation between top and bottom clubs appears minor, there is a significant financial variation across the league, primarily due to the large increase in broadcasting income. This is compounded by positive feedback via the relative dominance of the top six clubs receiving the larger share allocated to higher finishing teams.

This paper analyses English Premier League (EPL) and English Football League (EFL) championship clubs during the period 2002–2019 to anticipate financial distress with specific reference to footballs' Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

Data was collected for 43 professional football clubs competing in the EPL and Championship for the financial year ends 2002–2019. Analysis was conducted using the Z-score methodology and additional statistical tests were conducted to measure differences between groups. Data was split into two distinct periods to analyse club finances pre- and post-FFP.

The results show significant cases of financial distress amongst clubs in both divisions and that Championship clubs are in significantly poorer financial health than EPL clubs. In some cases, financially sustainability has worsened post-FFP. The “big 6” clubs – due to their size – seem to be more financially sound than the rest of the EPL, thus preventing a “too big to fail” effect. Overall, the financial situation in English football remains poor, a position that could be exacerbated by the economic crisis, caused by COVID-19.

The findings are not generalisable outside of the English football industry and the data is susceptible to usual accounting techniques and treatments.

The paper recommends a re-distribution of broadcasting rights, on a more equal basis and incentivised with cost-reduction targets. The implementation of a hard salary cap at league level is also recommended to control costs. Furthermore, FFP regulations should be re-visited to deliver the original objectives of bringing about financial sustainability in European football.

The paper extends the evidence base of measuring financial distress in professional team sports and is also the first paper of its kind to examine this in relation to Championship clubs.

The purpose of this paper is three‐fold. First, to explore the relationship between the financial and sporting performance of clubs competing in the English Premier League (EPL). Second, to investigate the effect of different models of EPL club ownership on financial and league performance. Third, to review the finances of EPL clubs in the context of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.

Financial data from annual reports for the period 2001‐2010 was collected for 20 EPL clubs. Correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between the finances of EPL clubs and their league position. One‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were then used to examine the effect of ownership type on clubs’ financial and league performances. Where the results of ANOVA testing revealed statistically significant differences between groups, these were investigated further using appropriate post hoc procedures.

The stock market model of ownership returned better financial health relative to privately owned (domestic and foreign) clubs. However, clubs owned privately by foreign investors or on the stock market performed better in the league in comparison with domestically owned clubs. The stock market model was more likely to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.

The paper confirms empirically that football clubs that float on the stock market are in better financial health and that clubs in pursuit of short‐term sporting excellence are reliant on substantial investment, in this case from foreign investors.

Employment law reform enforced in Estonia in mid-2009 provides a good opportunity to examine the outcomes of employment protection legislation (EPL). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the reduction in EPL on labour reallocation.

The author exploits the micro-data of the Labour Force Survey to estimate the probabilities of one-year worker flows with probit models, and uses a difference in differences (DID) approach to identify the effects of the EPL reform.

The author finds that the reduction in EPL seems to have increased the probability of transitions out of employment. At the same time, she does not find any significant effect of this reform on the probability of flows into employment. The evaluation also gives evidence of a lowered probability of job-to-job transitions resulting from the reduction in EPL.

In this paper, the DID estimation is conducted by using Lithuanians as the control group for Estonians. However, it should be noted that this approach assumes strong similarities between these countries in order to obtain reliable estimates.

The findings of this paper raise the possibility that the reduction in EPL alone may not have been sufficient for achieving a better reallocation of labour and this is important to consider in the context of further developments in other labour market institutions.

This study aims to investigate how new graduates in Nigeria can simultaneously pursue entrepreneurial and professional careers. Specifically, this study tested the contextual (socioeconomic status [SES]), person-based (an open personality) and cognitive-person (self-efficacy and outcome expectations) predictors of entrepreneurship, professionalism and leadership.

The study design is cross-sectional. Data were collected from 363 new graduates from Nigerian tertiary institutions. Hypotheses were generated from social cognitive career self-management (CSM) variables. Research instruments were also revalidated for the Nigerian context, and regression path analysis was used to analyze the data.

This study’s key findings showed that SES and an open personality are predictors of entrepreneurship, professionalism and leadership (EPL) self-efficacy and intentions, entrepreneurial and job outcome expectations. Second, EPL self-efficacy predicted both entrepreneurial and job outcome expectations and served as a mediating variable for SES and an open personality. Third, entrepreneurial outcome expectations related to EPL intentions, whereas job outcome expectations did not. These results suggest that SES and openness personality trait are crucial for developing a versatile career mindset.

This study demonstrated that individuals’ characteristics (i.e. cognitive and personality) and economic resources are crucial determinants of CSM. As this study is cross-sectional, future research could use a longitudinal approach to determine the cause-effect relationship.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first research to examine how new graduates can simultaneously explore entrepreneurial and professional careers in a developing country like Nigeria using the CSM theory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on self-employment in a comparative analysis between immigrants and natives. Specifically, it investigates whether, as a result of more stringent regulations, self-employment becomes a vehicle for better labour market integration for immigrants and natives, and for better matching between the supply and demand of labour and skills.

The authors use OECD indicators on the strictness of EPL, self-employment rates calculated for natives and immigrants from the EU Labour Force Survey and a range of control variables, in a longitudinal study covering 18 European countries over the period 1995–2013. The analysis employs a panel regression with random effects as the baseline model, with country and time fixed effects models serving for robustness checks.

The results indicate that EPL of regular contracts affects native self-employment positively, with some evidence of a negative effect for immigrants. On the other hand, EPL of temporary contracts positively affects immigrants’ self-employment. These results indicate that a stricter EPL crowds out incumbent native workers from the prime employment segment of regular contracts into self-employment, whereas a similar effect exists for immigrant workers in the segment of temporary contracts. This is consistent with the hypothesis of segmentation of labour market opportunities between insiders and outsiders, with implications for immigration, employment and entrepreneurship policies.

This is the first study to systematically study the effect of EPL on immigrant and native self-employment in a comparative framework. It elucidates to what extent self-employment serves as an alternative channel of labour market integration in response to less and more strict regulation of regular and temporary employment contracts. Distinguishing immigrant and native workers helps us understand how these effects may differ for outsiders and insiders in the labour market, as represented by the two groups.

The Egyptian Premier League (EPL) holds a prominent place in Egypt’s sporting culture and serves as the stage for some of Africa’s most competitive soccer clubs. However, the actual competitive balance in this league has come under scrutiny in recent years as the two historically dominant Cairo clubs, Ahly and Zamalek, continue to retain the EPL championship. A major concern is that the competitive imbalance of the EPL may actually be hampering the league’s progress and the progress of soccer in Egypt. In order to more closely assess this situation, the purpose of this paper is to use historical EPL performance data to conduct a series of competitive balance analyses on league results from 1948 to 2014. The findings revealed that competition in the league is almost nonexistent as Ahly and Zamalek continue to enjoy a number of direct and indirect financial benefits that are unrealized by their competitors. The dominance of these clubs has compromised the elements of match uncertainty and drama that are traditionally viewed as being important to the prestige and financial achievements of leagues and teams. Discussion is therefore offered for how the EPL could go about resolving some of its organizational and competitive balance issues.

This study adopted four basic measures of competitive balance to conduct descriptive analyses on EPL data that were collected from egyptianfootball.net and the Rec Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation. These analyses began with the EPL’s inaugural season (1948-1949) and extended to the conclusion of the 2014-2015 season. During this timeframe, seven seasons were canceled due to global and political tensions and four more went unfinished. Because these seasons were excluded, the total sample size consisted of 56 seasons, each of which contained between 10 and 24 EPL teams. The data were analyzed using variations of the following competitive balance measures: the range and standard deviation of winning percentages, the ratio of the standard deviation/Noll-Scully approach, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, and five-club concentration ratio.

The results confirmed that the league is largely imbalanced, leading the authors to recommend systemic and structural changes that could help promote competitive balance in the league. The call for competitive balance in the EPL was bolstered by a literature review of studies that advocated for parity in professional sports leagues. In the end, the researchers recommend the EPL to improve its organizational policies and consider a revised revenue-sharing system that would allow the small-market teams to survive and thrive.

The EPL holds a prominent place in Egypt’s sporting culture and serves as the stage for some of Africa’s most competitive soccer clubs. The primary purpose of this study was to perform a series of competitive balance analyses on EPL results from 1948 to 2015 in an effort to better understand the various degrees of competitiveness in the league during this time.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight and encourage consideration of the ethical and in some instances legal implications of managerial change in the English Premier League (EPL) which often gets overlooked and sidestepped by clubs.

Extant literature relating to managerial change is identified and discussed to provide the foundations of the discussion of whether managerial change in the EPL which is primarily focused on performance outcome, is neglecting ethical and legal issues.

The loophole that exists in the Employment Rights Act (1996) allows clubs to instantly dismiss a manager and consequently not see out their notice period as agreed in their contract or the statutory notice period. Whilst legally clubs are at will to act in this manner, the instability of EPL management evident today appears to have taken away the rights of an employee.

Greater consideration of the current managerial change practices in EPL from an ethical and legal perspective appears warranted. The incomparable rights that a player and a manger have relating to their tenure at a club seem somewhat unfair.

Presents thought-provoking information relating to managerial change in the EPL which appears to have been overlooked in the literature to date which primarily focuses on the impact of change on performance.

This paper aims to explore at what league size competitive balance reaches its best level through a longitudinal study and by using the English Premier League (EPL) as an example.

To test the influence of league size on competitive balance in the EPL, the authors first calculated competitive balance scores for 22 seasons between 1995/96 and 2016/17 under the existing 20 team system. They then calculated a further ten normalised competitive balance scores for each EPL season by adjusting the league size to examine the league size threshold at which competitive balance in each season of the EPL was at its best level.

The analysis indicates that the current league structure of 20 teams compromises the overall level of competitive balance in the EPL in comparison with a league comprising between 10 and 19 teams. However, the authors cannot pinpoint the precise league size at which the EPL is most competitively balanced, as no significant differences were observed between the competitive balance indices for these league sizes.

The findings of this study have practical relevance for league organisers and the Union of European Football Associations given that they themselves have stated that competitive balance will be a big challenge for the European football industry in the coming years.

Over the past several years, growth in sponsorship spending has surpassed that of traditional marketing and promotional approaches, as it has become an indispensable part of the marketing mix. Yet, despite considerable advances in the application of analytics across the sport industry, sponsorship revenue forecasting still largely relies on a decades-old methodology. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This research seeks to assist sport organizations by applying more advanced survival analysis methodologies to the study of shirt sponsorships of football clubs, utilizing more than 300 sponsorships of every team that has competed in the English Premier League (EPL) over the past 25 years.

The analysis of the lifetimes of shirt sponsorships provides several insights for those employed by European football clubs and tasked with managing these increasingly lucrative sponsorships. Notably, tests confirmed that survivor functions of EPL shirt sponsorships are significantly different than those that appeared solely in English Football League (EFL) Championship play. In addition, results found that the median lifetimes of shirt sponsorships of EPL clubs were more than one year longer, when compared to EFL clubs.

This research marks the first attempt in the literature to apply survival analysis methods to describe the lifetimes of European football shirt sponsorships. The results provide empirical evidence that the potential effects of promotion or relegation could have consequences for football clubs in the tens of millions of dollars, and illustrate the importance of providing those tasked with managing such partnerships with more advanced methodologies to assist in the organization’s sponsorship revenue forecasting activities.