Fascicolo 3/2008 - Rdes.it

30 Wladimir Andreff
actually emerged.
The question is to know whether or not , becoming MNCs, professional
clubs are already organized and managed as such. Financial crisis that European
football is muddling through 38 raises some doubt about whether better governance
and better financial management are now required in the industry of professional
sports as in any other globalised industry. 39 The legacy from amateur sport managed
by voluntary workers and financed by benevolent patrons has faded away in
European high level sport leagues and clubs.
Conclusion
All the dimensions involved in globalization of the sports economy, in particular
the fragment of professional sports, shows how promising this area is for a research
on sports economics. Even if the latter is now covered by the Handbook of Sport
Economics 40 gathering 86 chapters and 63 authors, and by an increasing number
of articles in economic journals, the issue of economic globalization in the sport
sector remains somewhat unheeded and calls for further publications.
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38
See, the special issue of Journal of Sports Economics, vol. 7, n. 1, 2006, dedicated to financial
crisis of European football.
39
W. ANDREFF, Governance issues in French professional football, cit.; W. ANDREFF, Equilibre
compétitif et contrainte budgétaire dans une ligue de sport professionnel. Vers une meilleure
gouvernance du football français, cit.
40
W. ANDREFF, S. SZYMANSKI, (eds.), Handbook on the Economics of Sports, cit.