Sports Management Commons^™

Managing The Business Of Soccer: A Conceptual Framework, Sten Söderman, James Santomier

WCBT Faculty Publications

In recent years soccer (i.e., European football) has experienced rapid globalization, primarily due to increased integration of sponsorship agreements, foreign investment, private equity, digital media technologies and effective executive leadership. Manchester United, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, and other high-level European soccer clubs are now owned or managed by investors, with the ostensible objective of generating ancillary benefits or significant profits. Historically, however, the ownership of unprofitable and often relegated soccer clubs was overwhelmingly in the hands of wealthy sport enthusiasts as sole proprietors. Given the recent and often dramatic changes in the business of soccer, the primary purpose of this chapter …