The Football Business: the international scenario with a focus on Udinese

Abstract

The football environment faced big changes during the last 30 years, in particular from the economic point of view; the Bosman Ruling and the pay tv contributed to the evolution of the sysytem, with a strong increase in the revenues for the clubs. I will analyze this evolution both from the Italian point of view and from an international perspective, underlining the economic dimension of this sport. Then, I will study the actual situation, having a look at the accounts of the main European teams, with a particular focus on Serie A and LaLiga, in order to find out the strategy used by the Spanish league to develop internationally. Finally, I will take into consideration two real cases,through a comparison between Udinese Calcio and Levante UD, from the point of view of their business models and their financial statements' results.