Competitive Balance In Football

Competitive Balance Within Football

Football is a called a billion dollar industry for a reason, with the estimated commercial revenue of the UEFA when it comes to the Champions League and Super Cup totaling up to €1.34bn ("UEFA Champions League Revenue"). And that number doesn’t even include the individual revenues of national clubs. The booming broadcasting income means that the England’s highest tier of football; Premier League is getting richer, with combined revenues soaring 29 per cent to £3.3bn (Bourke).

There are ways to ensure competitive balance within a league, competitive balance is a league in which all teams have a reasonably equal distribution of revenue/income, talent and that each team has an equal opportunity of winning

The balance of the competition within the league is unrivaled, especially looking at the European Leagues. While in Parc des Princes, Paris Saint-Germain F.C celebrated their French League cup last night, while sitting 27 points ahead in the competition, having won it a month earlier due to the extent of their lead and thus securing their third consecutive league championship (Grounds). Looking back at the 2014-15 season “The big pay roll club LA Galaxy, winner of three of the last four MLS cups didn't get out of the first round of the play off’s this fall while the eastern conference semi-finalists had the two lowest pay rolls in the league.” And stating in an interview, Don Garber, MLS commissioner; “We are a league that is founded on the principles that every fan at the beginning of the year should have the belief that their clubs has the chance to be in the final and so when we do see small markets or small spending teams do well that is a positive it sort of validates that theory about of ours” (Baxter). Competition remains fierce within the MLS, with more and more talent entering the league via both domestic talent and big stars from European Leagues, all following the league's intricate financial constraints. The competitive balance that the league has managed to attain is bearing fruit as more expansion teams are preparing to enter the growing league (Baxter). Not only that, “the average attendance at an MLS regular season game increased 12.7 percent, moving from 19,147 in 2014 to 21,574 this season” while “the highest average attendance came from the Seattle Sounders at 44,247, which breaks the club's previous league record of 44,038 set in 2013.” “The Sounders average attendance ranks second in the Western Hemisphere, and just overtook English Premier League club Liverpool in the global rankings.” All these