The football industry and the financial analysis of the publicly-traded football clubs in Istanbul Stock Exchange

Football has become what it is today by having been shaped by a series of rules starting from the middle of the 1800s. Since this period, various institutions and organizations opened for football that has been supported across the countries as well. Rapidly keeping its economic development, football has been no longer just a sports activity since the late 1980s. In 1995, football had been completely industrialized with the Bosman ruling and became a line of work which has an immediate influence on many sectors. Football industry has become a market which has an impact on hundreds of billions of dollars regarding the market structure and funding potential. Football clubs operating in this market have been directly affected by this situation and have become large-budget structures. So, the need to analyze the financial and administrative performances of the clubs with such a large-budget comes to the forefront. Either to be able to implement their administrative strategies or to be managed easier and faster, large-budget football clubs have entered into the process of transition from the association status into corporate status. Clubs incorporating and aiming to increase their market share have spent lots of money on transfers in order to have marketing revenues and the prize revenues brought by sporting success. As a result, their balance of income and expenses has been affected negatively. Clubs in search of low-cost fund due to the budget deficits have got into the capital markets through their subsidiaries of joint stock companies. From this point on, clubs have failed to reach the desired level even though they aimed to be managed professionally by a corporate governance mentality in terms of both financially and administratively. In this thesis study, the general structure of the football industry and the financial performance of our professional football clubs traded at Istanbul Stock Exchange have been measured through ratio analysis. Also, the differences in public offering models, administrative and financial structuring of these clubs have been mentioned.