Football economy: A comparative study on Europe and Turkey

Football, today, has turned into an industrial line of business with millions of dollars of broadcast revenues, sponsorship and advertising agreements, match day revenues, football contracts, and side sectors it interacts with. Professionalism, wage-free, sponsorship and advertising agreements has changed football fundamentally and change it leisure activity to commercial activity. However, after 1980s the breakthroughs in the field of broadcast have changed football radically. The fact that media companies purchasing the broadcast rights of the leagues for profit, increase the company entrance to the sector by sponsorship in order to benefit from its popularity has boosted income of football economy. With the sponsorship and broadcasting revenues, the commercialization of football has also increased the expenses of the sector. Bosman Decisions, which were introduced in 1995 and increased the freedom of movement of the players, have a big share on increased expenses. Nowadays, a significant portion of the expenses of football clubs is made up of wages and the clubs spend millions of dollars on player transfers. The number of clubs, which have difficulty in controlling the income-expenditure balance with the new football economy and have faced financial difficulties, has increased to significant levels. In 2009, UEFA introduced a set of rules, called the Financial Fair Play, in order to save the clubs from their financial negativity. In the light of this information, the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 and Super League, which are called the five major leagues of Europe, have been compared in terms of sporting, financial and economic.