Establishing budget system in football clubs

Modern football was born with the establishment of the first football clubs towards the end of the 19th century, and within a short period, it became a universal sport that was loved by societies. The rapidly developing of modern football became widespread all over the world and affected the development of football economy. The increase and diversity in the income of football clubs transformed football, which emerged only as a sport, to an industrial sector. Football clubs have ignored the income and expense balances in order to keep up with the uncontrolled football economy and achieve their sportive and financial goals. Football clubs, which are increasingly distant from their sportive and financial goals, are becoming high-risk institutions where their financial sustainability is compromised. Following closely european football clubs, whose financial situation deteriorated and had difficulty in achieving income and expense balance, UEFA began to take measures from the beginning of 2000s in order to take financial discipline. At this point UEFA aims to keep football budgets under control with the UEFA Club License and Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. UEFA monitors the financial processes of football clubs with the Equal Account Rule (Breakeven Rule), which forms the basis of the FFP criteria. UEFA aims to have football budgets under control, i. e. to break the income and expense balance, without allowing football clubs to spend more than their income. The aim of this study is to create a budget system based on the actual data of football clubs from past seasons and estimated data for the future within the scope of Club License and FFP regulations. In this scope historical development, the main organization structure, and economy of football, income and expenses of football clubs; the UEFA Club License system and FFP regulations are important. An application was made on Trabzonspor football club for the calculations of Equivalent Account Condition. A detailed example of the budgeting process is given based on the actual and estimated data of an UEFA club. In this context, after being informed about each budget constituting the income and expense budgets, the income and expense budgets of the given football club were prepared by giving examples on the preparation of the budget.