Sport management in Emerging Economy: Squad size, Expenses and Results – Case of the Brazilian Football League

• Main Authors: Ivan Wallan Tertuliano, Eric Matheus Rocha Lima, Vivian Oliveira, Bruna Alves Santana, Vladan Pavlović, Afonso Antonio Machado
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organisational Sciences 2019-03-01
• Series: Management
• Online Access: http://management.fon.bg.ac.rs/index.php/mng/article/view/194

Research Question: the paper investigates the influence of the size of the squad and the club's expenditures on football in the final classification in seasons 2008 to 2016 of the first division of the Brazilian Football League (Serie A). Motivation: Considering soccer as the most important sport in Brazil, representing a cultural symbol of the country, it is better to make it necessary. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the influence of the size of the squad on the performance of the teams and, in addition, how much the clubs invest in the formation of these squads. Idea: In this perspective, the central hypothesis of this study is that clubs with the highest number of players will also present the best classifications, and the second central hypothesis is that clubs with more investments in football have the biggest squad. Data: (The study was conducted with data collected over the internet, using data provided by clubs. Only the clubs belonging to the first division were used, being a total of 34 clubs, divided into 2 groups, according to the investment value in Football. Tools: This study presents descriptive and inferential analyses, since the qualitative-quantitative approach was assumed as a way of understanding the data. Assuming the number of clubs participating in the study, we chose non-parametric inferential analyses in the intra- and inter-group evaluations, using the alpha value of 0,05 as criterion. Findings: The results show that the size of the squad is not a determining factor in the ranking of clubs in the National League, but the clubs' spending on football is crucial, since the clubs with the highest spent on football were the clubs with the best safety ratings in 4 of 6 Championships. In addition, the results showed that the size of the squad and spending on Football are not related, that is, it's not the size of the squad what determines the cost of football and other factors, such as wages of athletes. Contribution: One can conclude that to the first division of the Brazilian championship of professional football, the number of athletes in the squad is not a determining factor for the position taken by the clubs in the competition, but the value invested in wages, corroborating only one of the hypotheses of study. However, this study has some limitations, such as sample size (only 34 teams), the use of clubs from a single country, and the lack of information from other clubs (not all clubs provide their financial statements through the club or federation website). Therefore, we emphasize the need for new studies.