Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport - Rdes.it

RIVISTA DI ISSN 1825-6678DIRITTO ED ECONOMIA DELLO SPORT Vol. II, Fasc. 2, 2006THE IMPACT OF FOOTBALL POINT SYSTEMS ON THECOMPETITIVE BALANCE: EVIDENCE FROM SOMEEUROPEAN FOOTBALL LEAGUESby Ferda Halicioglu*SOMMARIO: Introduction. – 1. Outcome of uncertainty and competitive balancein professional team sports. – 2. Measurement of competitive balancein professional team sports. – 3. Football point systems and competitivebalance: empirical evidence. – 4. Concluding remarks.CLASSIFICATION JEL: C40, D40, L83IntroductionFootball is the most popular professional team sport, world wide. Accordingto the world’s football governing body, Federation International de FootballAssociation (FIFA), there are more than two hundred million active footballplayers. In recent decades, it has also become a multi billion dollar globalindustry. It has been generating substantial revenues for private individualsand clubs, as well as national and international organisations. The footballindustry generates about 3% of world trade. 1 Given its industrial size and itspopularity, research in the economics of football has been rather limited incomparison to other economic activities. Football economics has been____________________*Department of Economics, Yeditepe University Istanbul, Turkey, fhalicioglu@yeditepe.edu.tr.I would like to thank Raul Caruso for advice and two referees of this journal for their valuablecomments. Usual disclaimer applies.1S. SZYMANSKI, Economics of Sport: Introduction, The Ec. J., vol. 111, 2001, 1-3.