Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe
A football club is exposed to a soft budget constraint (SBC) syndrome if it still survives after finding it impossible to break even financially in the long run. This in-depth case study presents a historical analysis of the evolution of an SBC syndrome in a top-tier Arctic football club over 30 yea...
Published in: | Frontiers in Sports and Active Living |
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28702 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/28702 2023-05-15T15:09:38+02:00 Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe Bertheussen, Bernt Arne 2023-03-07 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28702 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 eng eng Frontiers Media Frontiers in Sports and Active Living Bertheussen bab. Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. 2023 FRIDAID 2131807 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 2624-9367 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28702 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed publishedVersion 2023 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 2023-03-09T00:04:22Z A football club is exposed to a soft budget constraint (SBC) syndrome if it still survives after finding it impossible to break even financially in the long run. This in-depth case study presents a historical analysis of the evolution of an SBC syndrome in a top-tier Arctic football club over 30 years using public archive data. In oral speeches, strategy documents, and other official situations, the hierarchy at the club emphasized the importance of operating in a financially sustainable manner, that is, complying with a hard budget constraint approach (HBC). The club went along this path during the first years after entering the top tier in the mid-1980s. This was made possible by a team of low-cost local players. However, in line with increased media and sponsorship revenues in the 1990s, the economic threshold for competing at the top-level rose. Thus, during the last two decades of the club’s financial history, the budget constraint (BC) approach softened. Primarily, a distant benefactor and capital injections from a joint-stock company owned mainly by the local bank and local energy company funded the overspending. Furthermore, the study uncovers how a soft financial control and monitoring system introduced by the national football association failed to emancipate the club from the SBC syndrome. The study finally suggests some measures that can eventually harden the BC at this as well as many other financially struggling European football clubs. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 5 |
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University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
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ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
description |
A football club is exposed to a soft budget constraint (SBC) syndrome if it still survives after finding it impossible to break even financially in the long run. This in-depth case study presents a historical analysis of the evolution of an SBC syndrome in a top-tier Arctic football club over 30 years using public archive data. In oral speeches, strategy documents, and other official situations, the hierarchy at the club emphasized the importance of operating in a financially sustainable manner, that is, complying with a hard budget constraint approach (HBC). The club went along this path during the first years after entering the top tier in the mid-1980s. This was made possible by a team of low-cost local players. However, in line with increased media and sponsorship revenues in the 1990s, the economic threshold for competing at the top-level rose. Thus, during the last two decades of the club’s financial history, the budget constraint (BC) approach softened. Primarily, a distant benefactor and capital injections from a joint-stock company owned mainly by the local bank and local energy company funded the overspending. Furthermore, the study uncovers how a soft financial control and monitoring system introduced by the national football association failed to emancipate the club from the SBC syndrome. The study finally suggests some measures that can eventually harden the BC at this as well as many other financially struggling European football clubs. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bertheussen, Bernt Arne |
spellingShingle |
Bertheussen, Bernt Arne Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe |
author_facet |
Bertheussen, Bernt Arne |
author_sort |
Bertheussen, Bernt Arne |
title |
Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe |
title_short |
Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe |
title_full |
Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe |
title_fullStr |
Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe |
title_full_unstemmed |
Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe |
title_sort |
hard talk, costly walk: the evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of europe |
publisher |
Frontiers Media |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28702 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living Bertheussen bab. Hard talk, costly walk: The evolution of a soft budget constraint syndrome in a football club at the periphery of Europe. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. 2023 FRIDAID 2131807 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 2624-9367 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/28702 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) openAccess Copyright 2023 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1107988 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living |
container_volume |
5 |
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1766340788115996672 |