Extra Time

Conclusion

This blog began 9 weeks ago with the aim of investigating the relationship between money and success in world football. I examined 8 cases spanning from the 1960’s to the present day. These clubs were chosen because I had some latent knowledge of their histories but aside from the story on Manchester City there was a good deal of research required on my end. This research has lead me to two conclusions as I sit here at my final blog post. The first conclusion is that money does indeed buy success in world football at the macro level. This is somewhat anticlimactic and reaffirms basic intuition. It turns out that over the long term teams who spend more money on player salaries tend to perform better. What has been interesting is that it is spend on salaries which determines success rather than the more lionized transfer spend. The second conclusion is that success does not come without complications. This is especially true of the older cases I examined. Parma and Lazio in particular offered examples of clubs who, under the watch of ostensibly wealthy owners, flew too close to the sun. Although there were successes for those clubs (as there were for the others) those successes were oftentimes mitigated by catastrophe.

The Future of the Game

Here is the part in the blog where I should make reassurances about the future of world football. I should say that the sport’s governing bodies are doing all they can to preserve the competitive balance of the sport and that progress is being made towards a more equitable and inclusive future. This is not the case. I recently came across an interesting paper about parity in European football entitled “A longitudinal and comparative analysis of competitive balance in five European football leagues.” Admittedly that is a bit of a mouthful but the gist is that the leagues are becoming more and more stratified as time goes on. As more money pours into the game, the rich are getting richer and other clubs struggle to keep up. These divides, the paper notes, are occurring within leagues where the top clubs are receiving money from participating in the Champions League and within smaller leagues where one club is continually dominant. There are a couple of suggestions out there in the football ether to restore the sanctity of the game. The first is for a European Super League that would consist of the top European clubs. This proposed league would pluck the elite clubs from their domestic divisions and put them in competition with each other. Fans have came out against this idea and recently UEFA has insisted there will be no super league. The second solution is for a salary cap similar to what exists in American Football or the NBA. The salary cap would prevent clubs from outspending their competition but there have been issues raised about the willingness and effectiveness of the proposal.

FInal Thoughts

I have always been someone who enjoys writing and this blog has actually been a good experience for me. Doing research and writing about a topic you are passionate about makes the assignment feel less like work and more like broadening your knowledge in a fulfilling way. I do not think that I will continue this blog after the course is done but I am glad that I got to hopefully share some interesting stories and open people’s minds to a wonderful, chaotic and dramatic global game.