IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCES OF INCORPORATIONS OF FOOTBALL CLUBS IN THE DOMESTIC LEAGUE ON THEIR SPORTIVE PERFORMANCES: A STUDY COVERING FOUR MAJOR FOOTBALL CLUBS IN TURKEY

All over Europe, professional football clubs have been transformed into profit oriented incorporations and their performances have been judged on and off the field of play. Football has begun to be considered as a business in Turkey mostly as of late 90’s. In this study, we investigate the possible impact of the financial performances of incorporations on the sportive performances in the domestic league for the four major football clubs in Turkey, namelyBeoiktao, Fenerbah e, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor over the period 2002-2009. In order to carry out this study, we use variables from the financial statements of these clubs’ incorporations as a measure of their financial performances and sportive results obtained in the domestic league as an indicator of the sportive performance using a Spearman correlation model. The results of this study indicate that it appears to be no correlation between the sportive performances of the clubs and financial performances of their incorporations in the above mentioned period.