The Road to Success; A Multiple case study of the European Football industry

Sammanfattning: Background: The landscape of UEFA football industry has change in the recent years, football clubs of today have developed into profit-seeking organization and the governing body UEFA has implemented the legislation Financial Fair Play. The new landscape of the industry has change the way football clubs is competing and in order for a football club to compete at the highest level, the club must both improve the sporting performance and the financial performance. Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to identify internal resources that European football clubs possess in which can be potential sources of Sustained competitive advantage Approach: With the commercialization that has characterize UEFA football industry in the recent years has resulted in that football clubs is no longer only judged on their sporting performance but also on their financial performance. Today, the management of football club has similarities to tradition business organizations. Consequently, the author applies and adapts traditional business theories in order to identify key aspect for a football club in their aim of success on and off the field. Result and conclusions: The findings in this thesis show that there is a strong relationship between a football clubs financial strength and the performance on the pitch. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the difference between good financial performance and great financial performance lies in a football clubs ability to attract stakeholders. Thus, a football clubs way to success both from a financial and sporting perspective lies in their ability to sign lucrative sponsorship deals with external corporations.