‘Classical’ doping, financial doping and beyond: UEFA’s financial fair play as a policy of anti-doping
Against the backdrop of an increasing use of the term ‘doping’ in circumstances other than the classical understanding, this theoretic article provides a new and comprehensive inter-disciplinary reflection of the doping concept. The aim is to elaborate a broader understanding of doping in relation to socio-economic contexts. Besides addressing the question which structural similarities in general justify the label ‘doping’, a comparison between ‘classical’ doping and the so-called financial doping in European club football is developed. These insights serve as a basis for a consideration, to what extent insights of social-scientific research on drugs in sport may be consulted to analyse soc…
Walk the Talk: Financial Fairness in European Club Football
AbstractUEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations represent the most restrictive regulatory intervention European club football has ever seen. Put simply, it demands from clubs to operate on the basis of their own football-related incomes. While the policy has attracted considerable attention from the economic and social sciences, very few contributions systematically investigate it from a philosophical-ethical perspective. The present paper fills this research gap by posing questions on FFP in relation to fair play as a normative concept. We draw on sport economic assessments concerning potential outcomes of FFP and argue that the policy should go beyond the mere pragmatic goal of promo…
The guardians of European football : UEFA Financial Fair Play and the career of social problems
AbstractUEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) policy represents a severe regulatory intervention in European club football competitions. While potential outcomes of the concept have been thoroughly assessed, there is little research on the genesis and background behind its implementation. The present paper fills this gap by analyzing the discourse in the run-up to the passage of FFP. We focus on interpreted practice and context and argue that the rising indebtedness of clubs and their increasing reliance on benefactors were a necessary but not sufficient requirement. Further ingredients imperative for the successful policy development were claims-making activities by influential actors to secure…
Potential agency problems in European club football? The case of UEFA Financial Fair Play
Purpose– With the licence season 2013/2014 onwards Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Financial Fair Play (FFP) fully came into force. Among other things, FFP demands from the clubs to operate within their own revenues in order to counteract the increasing over indebtedness in European club football. The purpose of this paper is to cast further light on the relationship between UEFA and the clubs as the main actors of FFP and to derive implications to UEFA to improve the efficacy of this regulatory intervention.Design/methodology/approach– This paper explicitly examines the case of FFP from an agency theory perspective. A positivist agency approach is applied in order to describ…
Financial doping and financial fair play in European Club football competitions
This contribution provides an explanation of ‘financial doping’ as a management concept in the context of European club football as well as on UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regime, which can well be framed as the governing body of European football’s attempt to address this issue. The chapter is structured as follows: First, the historic development of financial regulation in European football is briefly outlined. The notion of financial doping as well as in what way it undermines the integrity of the sporting competition is addressed next. Afterwards, the FFP policy is explained, followed by a critical review of its discussion in scholarly literature as well as the presentation of an ou…