Later City News: Corona crisis caused existence-threatening liquidity issues and stressed the financial management of many Professional Football Clubs (PFCs), including premier league teams.
Professional sport organizations calculate in general only small profits and the sector is highly vulnerable to crises, a combination that makes professional football unstable and fragile.
A research done by a group of researchers from Finland, Sweden and Italy confirms that the unexpected adverse shocks that lead to a revenue reduction, like the COVID-19 pandemic, have the potential to financially collapse the industry, emphasized by interviews' participants who reported that without playing most of the clubs would not have survived longer.
This research has been published by Elsevier revealed that PFCs have hardly established any crisis management structures and the research suggested that PFCs engage in developing internal expertise on how to deal with a crisis.
Sponsors are one of the major stakeholders of PFCs. To diversify the financial risk of a club, our interviews highlighted that it might be beneficial to have a main sponsor from an industry whose economy is not cyclical with sport or, even better, from a crisis resistant sector.
Further, PFCs should invest in the relationships with sponsors because an emotional bond will enhance loyalty and therefore increase the chance of getting support in times of recessions.
The media echo during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed that the public still perceives PFCs as community-based sport organizations and that their economical relevance is neglected.
However, one should bear in mind that although PFCs are highly commercialized, they are still social in nature. This was made particularly clear by the COVID-19 crisis and the various streams of high solidarity between the PFC and its stakeholders, leading to mutual support and a sense of unity to overcome the downturn.
In terms of entrepreneurial orientation of PFCs, the study shows that the revenue reduction due to the COVID-19 pandemic increases the likelihood of reactive behaviour and decreased proactivity.
However, PFCs are well advised to engage in sport entrepreneurship since the findings indicate that an entrepreneurial profile is a paramount factor for surviving during and after a crisis.
The overall findings suggest that PFCs are well advised to use the sport's inherent potential for entrepreneurship in periods of recession since it may be an important factor when it comes to organizational performance in times of economic downturns.
For finalising this research, ten semi-structured interviews with CEOs of PFCs from Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland provided in-depth insights about how the football sector copes with the corona crisis.
In this regards and after facing COVID-19, England premier league made a hashtag #weareoneteam and started releasing related news.
In explaining this hashtag premier league mentioned: In response to the coronavirus pandemic, our thoughts are firstly with everyone affected by COVID-19.
The health and safety of fans around the world is our priority, so the only goal that matters right now is to save lives by protecting yourself and others from catching the virus. The only support that matters is to support one another.
Our clubs have been providing wide-ranging support for their communities.
These have included facilities for medical use and accommodation for NHS staff, supporting foodbanks, transporting food and medicines and keeping in contact with the most vulnerable members of society.
Right now, we are all on the same team. We are one team.
We are grateful to the healthcare workers around the world fighting to keep people healthy and we will continue to promote important public health messaging in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
You can play your part. Protect yourself and others. Save lives.
End//
Comments