The Influence of Economic and Sporting Performances in the Diversification of Revenues of Brazilian Football Clubs

ABSTRACT

The Resource Dependence Theory seeks to understand how external factors influence an organization's behavior, dependency, and diversification of resources. This study analyzes the influence of economic-financial and sports performance on the revenue diversification of 24 Brazilian football clubs. The composition of the revenues was analyzed through the APFUT classification, with the addition of the "Financial Revenues" category, while the adapted Hirschman-Herfindahl Index was used to measure the level of diversification. The results indicate that the clubs' main revenues are Broadcasting Rights, Transfer of Federative Rights, and Sponsorship. The models pointed to the positive effects of profitability and Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) Ranking and the negative effect of promotion to the first division on the diversification level, indicating the relevance of economic and sports elements. This study contributes to the analysis of sports and economic-financial performance, which affect revenue management, and endorses the discussion on the need for revenue diversification as one of the measures to avoid financial difficulties.

Keywords:
Football Clubs; Diversification; Revenues; Sports Performance

RESUMO

A Teoria da Dependência dos Recursos procura entender como fatores externos influenciam o comportamento da organização, sua dependência e diversificação de recursos. Este estudo analisa a influência dos desempenhos econômico-financeiro e esportivo na diversificação das receitas de 24 clubes de futebol brasileiros. A composição das receitas foi analisada por meio da classificação da APFUT, adicionada da categoria “Receitas Financeiras”, enquanto o indicador Hirschman-Herfindahl adaptado foi utilizado para medir o nível de diversificação. Os resultados indicam que as principais receitas dos clubes são Direitos de Transmissão, Repasse de Direitos Federativos e Patrocínio. Os modelos apontaram efeitos positivos da rentabilidade e Ranking da CBF, e negativo do acesso à primeira divisão no nível de diversificação, indicando a relevância de elementos econômicos e esportivos. Este estudo contribui para a análise dos desempenhos esportivo e econômico-financeiro, os quais afetam a gestão de receitas, bem como endossa a discussão sobre a necessidade de diversificação das receitas como uma das medidas para evitar dificuldades financeiras.

Palavras-chave:
Clubes de futebol; Diversificação; Receitas; Desempenho Esportivo

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, due to high revenue volumes, particularly those related to ticket prices, transfers, and prizes, football clubs have evolved from merely sports organizations to significant economic entities (Ribeiro & Lima, 2012; Zambom-Ferraresi et al., 2017 a ). Revenue discussions have always stirred up debates in Brazilian clubs. However, due to multimillion-dollar signings since the 2019 season (Canônico, 2018; GloboEsporte.com, 2019), they have gained prominence, as discussions about their financial difficulties and indebtedness also have been frequent (Dantas et al., 2017; Minatto & Borba, 2021; Oliveira & Borba, 2021; Oliveira et al., 2018; Rezende & Dalmácio, 2015).

Currently, Brazilian clubs have been experiencing a transformation in the sports industry (Nakamura & Cerqueira, 2021) in which the composition of revenues was altered and ticket sales gave way to sponsorship and broadcasting rights (Costa & Marinho, 2005; Gonçalves & Carvalho, 2006), making them dependent on media revenues (Capelo, 2022). Evidence of this change is the diversification of revenues and new sponsorship contracts. The football club Palmeiras, for example, reduced its dependence on this revenue source by half in six years (Laurentiis, 2018). However, this phenomenon is not particular to Brazil; dependence on broadcasting rights revenue was also identified in Spanish clubs (Urdaneta-Camacho et al., 2022).

Diversifying revenue is one way to avoid the financial vulnerability of clubs (Cordery et al., 2018). While a company's performance derives from available resources, how it uses these resources, and the efficiency achieved in this process, sports entities have financial availability as a crucial resource, in order to invest in talent. Therefore, those with more financial resources are expected to dominate their leagues (Zambom-Ferraresi et al., 2017 a ). By achieving sporting success, teams are expected to increase their revenue through competition participation rewards and titles, growing fan engagement in stadiums, or purchasing products bearing the club's brand.

The Resource Dependence Theory, formulated by Pfeffer and Salancik (2015), helps understand this phenomenon and is often used to support research in nonprofit organizations (Good et al., 2015; Reheul et al., 2018; Vermeer et al., 2009), specifically in sports entities (Cordery et al., 2018; Wicker & Breuer, 2011). However, an analysis under the bias of financial resource dependence was not found in the examined literature fragment in Brazilian clubs, as most clubs in Brazil are organized as nonprofit entities. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the influence of economic-financial and sports performance on the revenue diversification of Brazilian football clubs.

The revenues of 24 Brazilian clubs were classified according to the classification proposed by the Public Authority of Football Governance (APFUT), including financial revenues. Sports and economic performances were measured and analyzed together with the level of revenue diversification, measured by the adapted Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI). The results indicated a positive influence on profitability and show a negative effect where promotion to the first division decreases revenue diversification.

Therefore, the aim is to contribute to the management of Brazilian clubs, as the literature points out that elements related to governance and sports performance affect the revenue level of sports entities (Aguiar-Noury & Garcia-del-Barrio, 2022; Cordery et al., 2018). This study is justified as it intends to reveal revenue behavior over the years and its diversification. Moreover, it is justified due to the frequent news (Capelo, 2018; Paradizo & Rodrigues, 2011) discussing club revenues and how they finance themselves.

Furthermore, clubs constituted as nonprofit entities face challenges related to financial capabilities. To perceive their ability to respond to environmental challenges, federations and executives must understand their resource structure and capacity to mobilize resources (Wicker & Breuer, 2011). Faced with this theoretical-empirical appeal, accompanied by a financial crisis scenario in Brazilian football clubs, this study is justified by providing a general overview of club revenues.

2. RESOURCE DEPENDENCE THEORY AND SPORTIVE ENTITIES

The Resource Dependency Theory suggests that an entity's behavior and structure can be explained by its resources. Given that organizations cannot generate all the necessary resources for their survival, they rely to some extent on external sources (Wicker & Breuer, 2011). This theory seeks to understand the influence of external factors on an organization's behavior, because entities, in order to garner sufficient resources, must obtain financing from other institutions, increasing their dependency on these sources (Cordery et al., 2018). Therefore, an organization's degree of resource dependency is determined by the importance and concentration of these resources. To survive, organizations need to acquire and maintain resources through interaction with the individuals who control them, which is not straightforward, as environments concentrate on uncertainty and scarcity (Froelich, 1999).

Sports clubs that experience significant variations in revenues over the years, especially if they cannot be anticipated, have problems with financial planning and meeting their expenses, increasing the risk of insolvency. Large variations can represent a financial threat even if a club has high average revenue over a period (Wicker et al., 2015). Therefore, sports clubs should be confronted with scarcity, as not all resources are abundantly available, significantly impacting how they deal with challenges. In this way, reducing one source can elevate another. However, increasing dependency on external resources diminishes the autonomy of organizations (Wicker & Breuer, 2011).

Therefore, the revenues of sports entities should be diversified so that a reduction in a certain source does not strongly impact their planning. In this sense, organizations try to reduce the power of others over them, usually by increasing their power over others (Hillman et al., 2009). Increasing revenues more significantly than peers is relevant to sports entities, as those with greater access to financial resources are expected to dominate the championships they compete in (Zambom-Ferraresi et al., 2017 b ).

In this scenario, the change in environments associated with the main suppliers of resources has been translated into opportunities and threats to the financing of organizations, resulting in a change of sources and dependency on resources (Froelich, 1999). This situation can be seen in Brazilian football, where clubs have found alternative sources of resources other than ticket sales revenue, previously the teams' main source of income (Gonçalves & Carvalho, 2006).

Even though the clubs have diversified their revenue (Cordery et al., 2018), collecting through concessions of rights over the club's brand, cessions of federative rights, television rights, sponsorships, marketing, and partnerships, there was a dependency on revenues coming from the negotiation of broadcast rights (Carmichael et al., 2011; Costa & Marinho, 2005; Gonçalves & Carvalho, 2006). Although box office and broadcast revenues are influential in clubs' revenue, in Brazil, the main source of funds is the sale of players to other clubs (Alves et al., 2012).

The sale of players and the consequence of this action is one of the differentiating factors of the football industry compared to others. Clubs that attract many fans tend to have a larger revenue distribution, allowing teams that raise the most money to buy the most talented players from those with low revenue. Thus, for lower-income clubs, one of the most important sources of funds is the sale of players (Solberg & Haugen, 2010). This competition leads to a disparity in revenue between clubs, causing those with more income to earn increasingly more and those with fewer resources to end up with a reduced budget, which in some cases implies little or no sporting success and the distancing of spectators. This situation can lead clubs to an undesirable cycle of financial difficulties due to poor distribution of revenues.

Barajas et al. (2005) conducted a study on the relationship between budgeted revenues and the sporting performance of Spanish football clubs. The results indicated that the sporting performance indicator had the highest explanatory power compared to the other proposed models. In addition, sports revenues, as expected, showed the greatest explanatory power, while box office revenues, fan membership, and sponsorships showed the lowest values.

The literature on revenues in football clubs is scarce, although research reports its importance to this industry and its consequences for the market and team finances. Nevertheless, studies have sought to provide information about revenues, their sources, determinants, or variation.

Marques and Costa (2016) point out that the revenues of Brazilian clubs are classified into three main groups: stadiums, audiovisual rights, and marketing. The first group refers to ticket sales and other services this structure offers, such as a store. The second comprises revenues primarily from the contracts to broadcast the matches the clubs compete in. Finally, the third group includes revenues collected from sponsorships and brand licensing.

According to Bradbury (2019), there are two common sources of revenue generation: the market's size and the fans' wealth potential. The first is because larger populations have greater potential for attracting fans. Additionally, in markets with more than one club, the relationship with revenue is negative, i.e., the revenue per team tends to decrease because it ends up being divided among more clubs. Also, clubs with new stadiums tend to collect more revenue due to novelty because they offer a better structure and more security. However, fan interest decreases 10 years after the opening. Sporting results are also related to revenue, as clubs tend to collect more revenue as they improve.

Wicker et al. (2015) studied the volatility and determinants of the revenues of nonprofit sports clubs in Germany and identified a greater dependence on resources coming from membership fees than from subsidies. They also found that revenue diversification can reduce volatility. On the other hand, Bradbury (2019) identified the determinants of revenue in the main North American sports leagues. The research indicated that, except for the American National Football League (NFL), revenues are positively associated with sporting results, unlike age, where it was found that newer stadiums, due to their attractiveness potential, tend to generate more revenues.

Urdaneta-Camacho et al. (2022) examined the influence of management and governance practices on the level of revenue diversification of Spanish football clubs. The results indicated that elements related to the financial regulation imposed in 2015 improved the financial situation of the clubs. Furthermore, most clubs showed a high dependence on one source of income, except for the main clubs in the league.

In general, it is known that depending on a single source of resources ties its survival to the holder of this source (Froelich, 1999), and that diversification tends to decrease this dependence. Additionally, evidence suggests that clubs concentrate their revenue on two or three sources, which revolve around their sporting success. Thus, negative results on the field tend to result in lower revenue for the season and can lead clubs into a financial crisis. Therefore, clubs end up looking for new sources of resources in the face of uncertainty, diversifying their revenue and reducing their dependence on a single source.

This situation reinforces the importance of understanding the revenues of Brazilian football clubs, which are constantly in crisis, as well as the level of their dependence and diversification. It is in this context that this study differs from the research of Bradbury (2019), Wicker and Breuer (2011) and Wicker et al. (2015).

3. METHODOLOGY

The sample consisted of football clubs that competed in at least one year in the Serie A of the Brazilian Championship from 2012 to 2021. The set of complete Financial Statements from 2012 to 2021 was collected for this study. These documents were identified on the clubs' websites or the websites of state football federations and newspapers. A total of 229 financial reports were found to collect information related to the revenue of football clubs, which was analyzed with two focuses: (i) the total annual revenue, and (ii) the different revenues that make up the total value.

After identifying the total revenues and their respective composition, they were classified according to the Accounting Manual for Sports Entities developed by APFUT according to the existing ten categories. However, even though the APFUT model was used for standardization, during the data collection and the respective classification of revenues according to the established standard, adding the 'Financial Revenues' (FR) category was necessary. This addition aimed to group revenues obtained through discounts, interest, and debt relief (PROFUT, for example). Thus, the revenues were classified into one of the 11 predetermined categories, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1
Definition of classifications according to the Accounting Manual for Sports Entities

Classification	Manual Definition	Disclosure Examples
Broadcasting Rights (BR)	Record the values contracted due to the sports entity's participation in various championships and other matches, both in Brazil and abroad, regarding open TV, cable, Pay-Per-View (PPV), internet, mobile telephony, video on demand, closed circuit, or any other transmission modality to be created, where the sports entity is remunerated.	Broadcasting and image revenues; sports broadcasts
Signing Bonuses (SB)	Signing bonuses are prizes received for signing contracts, mostly contracts that will remain in effect in the long term, beyond the fiscal year of receiving funds.	Contractual bonuses; Series A Contractual Bonuses
Ticket Sales (TS)	Refers to the gross value the sports entity collects in matches where it may or may not be the host.	Ticket Sales Revenues; Match Collection
Sponsorship/ Marketing (SM)	The following should be recorded in the "Sponsorship/Marketing" group:	Royalties; Sponsorships and advertisements
	- Revenues from sponsorships, whether on uniforms or not, based on contracts signed with the respective sponsors, according to the duration of the brand's affiliation with the sports entity;
	- Values collected with product licensing, whether they refer to royalties or any other denomination, recognized by the competence regime;
	- Possible bonuses for sales performance or for sports performance, paid by the sponsors to the sports entities, whether provided or not in the sponsorship contracts.
Federative Rights Transfer (RT)	According to the current international regulation, the "Federative Rights Transfer" group should register the receipts related to the solidarity mechanism, which refers to the percentage designated from all amounts paid for international transfers of athletes to the sports entity that participated in their training.	Revenues from transfer of federative rights; Athlete transactions
Fan Membership Program (MP)	Record all gross revenues earned with the installments of the fan membership programs, according to the competence regime. Anticipated receipts of installments or annuities should be recorded in a proper liability account, transitioning in result according to the duration.	Fan Membership Installments
Property/Social Revenues (SR)	They refer to revenues earned with the installments of associates, little football schools, and others related to the social headquarters, not including those related to fan membership programs.	Social collection
Tax Incentives (TI)	Record all resources earned with tax incentives, whether in any governmental spheres (federal, state, or municipal). In a specific explanatory note, the sports entity should list, analytically, all the tax incentive programs through which it earned revenues.	Timemania; Federal Lotteries; Incentive Project
Awards (AW)	Record the gross amounts earned by victories, be they titles or by phase passage, according to the regulations of the competitions.	Brazilian Championship Award
Other Revenues (OR)	They refer to all other revenues earned and not listed in other groups, excluding financial ones, such as: revenues from commercial explorations, rentals, lotteries, indemnities, provision reversals, etc.	Other revenues

• Source: Adapted from APFUT (2017).

With the data standardized, the analysis of the results was initiated. First, considerations about the descriptive statistics of the variables analyzed were made. The size of the clubs was used as a discriminating element, according to the criterion adopted by Dantas et al. (2015) and related research (Dantas et al., 2017; Minatto & Borba, 2021). The following were classified as big clubs: Atlético-MG, Botafogo, Corinthians, Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Fluminense, Grêmio, Internacional, Palmeiras, Santos, São Paulo, and Vasco, with the rest being classified as small clubs. The difference between these values was tested using the Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon test from calculating the median of the economic-financial and sports elements.

The adapted HHI indicator, presented by Cordery et al. (2018), was calculated according to Equation 1 to analyze the diversification of the clubs' revenues.

$$HHI=[1-\sum {\left(\frac{Revenuesource}{Totalrevenue}\right)}^2]$$ (1)

The adapted HHI proposes that the closer to 1, the more diversified an organization's revenue is, that is, it has multiple sources of resources. Conversely, the closer to zero, the less diversification, indicating that organizations tend to be dependent on one or a few types of revenues.

This indicator was used as the dependent variable in the econometric model set out in Equation 2. The independent variables included aim to capture Brazilian clubs' economic-financial and sports performances during the analyzed period and their influence on revenue diversification. It is important to highlight the inclusion of the lagged profitability variable to minimize the endogenous effects of total revenue on revenue diversification.

$${HHI}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}=a_0+a_{1}Size+a_2{Rentability}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}-1}+a_3{Indebtedness}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+a_4{Profitability}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+a_5{OperatingCashFlowGeneration}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+a_6{CBFRanking}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+a_7{Division}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+a_8{Promotion}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+a_9{Relegation}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}+e_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{t}}$$ (2)

The operationalization and theoretical support of the variables are presented in Table 2.

Table 2
Variables and Operationalization

Variables	Operationalization	Theoretical Support
HHI	$HHI=[1-\sum {\left(\frac{Revenuesource}{Totalrevenues}\right)}^2]$	(Cordery et al., 2018)
Size	A dummy variable that takes the value 1 when the club belongs to the group of 12 major clubs, and 0 otherwise.	(Dantas et al., 2015)
Rentability	$\frac{{Revenues}_{it-1}}{{TotalAssets}_{it-1}}$	(Alaminos & Fernández, 2019; Ecer & Boyukaslan, 2014)
Indebtedness	$\frac{{TotalLiabilities}_{it}}{{TotalAssets}_{it}}$	(Alaminos & Fernández, 2019)
Profitability	$\frac{{NetIncome}_{it}}{{TotalAssets}_{it}}$	(Ecer & Boyukaslan, 2014)
Operating Cash Flow Generation	$\frac{{OperatingCashFlow}_{it}}{{TotalAssets}_{it}}$	(Amir & Livne, 2000, 2005)
CBF Ranking	Logarithm of total points earned according to the Ranking criterion proposed by the Brazilian Football Confederation.	(Ferreira et al., 2018; Freitas et al., 2017)
Division	A dummy variable that takes the value 1 when the club competed in the first division of the Brazilian championship in year t, and 0 otherwise.	(Alaminos & Fernández, 2019; Dantas et al., 2015)
Promotion	A dummy variable that takes the value 1 when the club was promoted to a higher division in year t-1, and 0 otherwise.	(Alaminos & Fernández, 2019; Ruta et al., 2019)
Relegation	A dummy variable that takes the value 1 when the club was relegated to a lower division in year t-1, and 0 otherwise.	(Dantas et al., 2015; Dimitropoulos & Limperopoulos, 2014; Ruta et al., 2019)

• Source: Author’s elaboration

The models were operationalized through fixed effects and pooled data, so it is possible to analyze the effect of the size variable, which, due to its fixed effect on the club, does not present a coefficient in the fixed effects model (Aguiar-Noury & Garcia-del-Barrio, 2022). Regarding the assumptions of the regressions, it is detailed that the Durbin-Watson and Breusch-Pagan tests pointed to the autocorrelation of the residuals and heteroscedasticity. Therefore, the models are presented with robust standard errors clustered at the club level to minimize heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation of the residuals. Regarding multicollinearity, the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) statistic values were less than 5, indicating the absence of correlation of independent variables.

As a robustness test, the models were implemented with and without these years due to the analyzed period encompassing the years 2020 and 2021 when clubs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 3 presents the medians of the HHI indicator, revenue sources, and the economic-financial and sports indicators analyzed in the research. The medians are presented for the large and small clubs group and the p-value of the Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon median difference test for the quantitative variables.

Table 3
Descriptive Statistics

		Small		Big		Med Difference	S.D.	Mann Whitney
		Med	S.D.	Med	S.D.
Panel A - Quantitative Variables Descriptive Statistics
HHI		0.70	0.01	0.75	0.05	-0.04	0.01	0.00
Broadcasting Rights		41.47	18.5	35.35	11.6	-6.12	2.1	0.04
Signing Bonuses		0.00	8.0	0.00	4.3	0.00	1.0	0.63
Ticket Sales		4.50	9.2	5.87	5.5	1.37	1.0	0.27
Sponsorship/ Marketing		8.48	8.0	12.62	7.4	4.14	1.0	0.00
Federative rights Transfer		11.44	13.6	18.14	11.7	6.70	1.7	0.00
Fan Membership Program		8.27	9.2	3.16	4.4	-5.10	1.0	0.00
Property/Social Revenues		0.25	3.0	5.34	6.8	5.09	0.7	0.00
Tax Incentives		0.00	6.3	0.00	0.8	0.00	0.7	0.02
Awards		0.00	4.9	1.01	4.3	1.01	0.7	0.14
Other Revenues		4.29	8.8	3.10	5.6	-1.19	1.0	0.16
Financial Revenues		0.00	5.2	0.00	9.8	0.00	1.0	0.10
Rentability		0.60	1.2	0.58	0.5	-0.02	0.1	0.97
Indebtedness		1.03	1.4	1.16	1.6	0.13	0.2	0.00
Profitability		-0.01	0.5	-0.01	0.3	0.00	0.06	0.76
Operating Cash Flow		0.05	0.2	0.09	0.2	0.04	0.02	0.02
CBF Ranking		8.86	0.4	9.49	0.2	0.63	0.04	0.00
Panel B - Qualitative Variables Descriptive Statistics
		Small		Big
		N	Pct.	N	Pct.
Division	1	58	48.3	111	92.5
	2	54	45.0	9	7.5
	3	6	5.0	0	0.0
Promotion	0	88	73.3	103	85.8
	1	20	16.7	5	4.2
Relegation	0	90	75.0	100	83.3
	1	18	15.0	8	6.7

• Source: Author’s elaboration. Note: S.D. = Standard Deviation.

Notably, the HHI indicator median for large clubs was higher than for small clubs, with a statistically significant difference. It is justified that large clubs have a greater ability to maximize revenue sources due to the size of their fan base, the sale of young athletes to the foreign market, and participation in international competitions more frequently than small clubs.

Also, the results show that the proportion of revenues from Sponsorship and the transfer of federative rights is higher for large clubs than small ones. On the other hand, revenues related to the supporter's membership program are more representative of small clubs. Notably, for most of the small clubs analyzed, this revenue showed low variability over the years compared to broadcasting rights and transfer of federative rights, for example.

The high values of revenues in the Other Revenues category can be seen as an opportunity for clubs to become more transparent. It is expected that a representative value is not allocated in this category, as it would be more transparent to identify the real source of this resource and highlight it, aiming at more relevant information. In this situation, the materiality of the value presented was not considered to segregate the resource source and provide better information. It is noteworthy that small clubs presented a higher percentage in this category when compared to large clubs.

It should be noted that the current accounting standards to which clubs are subject, point out that, in cases where information can influence decision-making in any way due to its omission, distortion, or inaccuracy, it is considered material. However, being a specific aspect of each entity due to its nature or magnitude, “[...] one cannot specify a uniform quantitative limit for materiality or predetermine what may be material in a specific situation” (CPC- Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis, 2019, p. 10).

The maximum value raised through Signing Bonuses was obtained by Grêmio, in 2016, by signing with Globo Television Network to conclude the Broadcasting Rights contract. In this category, the lack of transparency possibly hinders the analysis, considering that clubs can present this value with the Revenue with Broadcasting Rights. Still, this source did not show significant values over the years, except for the year 2016. This is explained because the values related to Broadcasting Rights are not negotiated annually, but in medium and long-term contracts. The club, in this case, would only receive Bonuses at the time of contract negotiation.

Attention must be paid to accounting registration issues in this source, which should be by an accrual basis. The Accounting Manual for Sports Entities, from APFUT, determines that revenues from bonuses are classified, in principle, as advanced revenues, unless there is no counterpart from the club linked (APFUT, 2017). As the explanatory notes provide little information, it is not possible to determine that the clubs that did not register bonus revenue in 2016 did so by the accrual basis, accounting for the values as anticipated revenue or as broadcasting rights, nor is it valid to say that Bahia, Grêmio, Vitória, and Ponte Preta, which presented revenues related to bonuses in 2016, did not comply with the said regime.

However, the manual was not in force in 2016, the year of closing new television contracts. The issues of how clubs register a good part of their collection goes unnoticed by the explanatory notes, making it difficult to understand the clubs' economic-financial situation. It is emphasized, therefore, that clubs should improve their disclosure, as they possibly recognize these revenues together with the item of broadcasting rights resulting from the same type of contract. However, it is highlighted that these have distinct characteristics and should be separated into distinct items.

The financial indicators analyzed demonstrate a greater capacity for operational cash generation for large clubs while presenting a higher level of indebtedness. However, both large and small clubs showed a similar level of profitability and rentability.

Regarding sports performance, it is pointed out that the median CBF Ranking was higher for large clubs compared to small ones. Also, large clubs had more participation in the Brazilian championship's first division and fewer relegations. On the other hand, small clubs had the highest number of promotions, which is justified by the recurring presence of clubs in the second division.

Table 4 reports the median percentage of revenue categories and the HHI indicator per club.

Table 4
Median percentage representation of revenue categories (2012-2021)

Club	BR	SB	TS	SM	RT	MP	SR	TI	AW	OR	FR	HHI
América MG	56.50	0.00	1.66	11.90	6.60	0.00	0.87	0.00	0.00	24.38	1.23	0.60
Atlético-GO	43.20	0.00	9.28	14.80	7.79	0.44	0.00	0.00	0.00	4.22	0.00	0.63
Atlético-MG	42.86	0.00	8.29	10.36	16.34	5.17	6.99	0.00	0.00	3.36	0.00	0.73
Athletico	26.41	0.00	4.12	7.72	19.63	10.41	0.00	0.00	8.17	7.29	9.64	0.81
Avaí	40.33	0.00	3.99	14.08	10.07	13.41	3.98	0.00	0.00	3.75	0.00	0.73
Bahia	46.68	0.00	12.34	8.24	10.02	6.17	0.00	0.00	0.00	6.34	0.00	0.69
Botafogo	45.75	0.00	6.32	7.46	9.49	3.52	0.91	0.00	3.41	9.80	0.00	0.72
Ceara	37.13	16.88	15.71	10.00	16.80	10.36	1.07	3.03	3.67	0.96	0.06	0.77
Corinthians	41.52	0.00	6.27	26.71	19.47	6.38	0.00	0.00	2.45	0.41	0.00	0.72
Coritiba	38.58	0.00	5.53	7.08	13.77	20.76	4.89	0.00	0.00	0.28	0.00	0.72
Criciúma	43.36	0.00	0.00	4.21	4.91	23.11	0.00	0.00	0.00	6.34	0.13	0.66
Cruzeiro	38.28	0.00	7.84	11.54	11.71	0.57	4.73	0.00	2.69	3.03	0.00	0.71
Flamengo	35.00	0.00	8.73	19.96	8.83	6.10	3.82	1.08	1.82	1.94	2.48	0.77
Fluminense	40.16	0.00	4.74	6.81	21.15	2.03	7.29	0.00	2.16	2.80	0.00	0.73
Fortaleza	17.37	0.00	18.21	18.51	4.62	20.88	0.43	2.99	5.67	5.00	0.24	0.78
Goiás	55.38	0.00	4.50	4.37	13.03	5.87	0.19	0.00	2.40	5.75	0.00	0.65
Grêmio	31.30	1.52	0.08	13.84	22.25	0.00	17.61	0.00	0.00	3.04	2.54	0.77
Internacional	27.45	0.00	3.84	12.40	21.32	0.00	18.03	0.00	1.40	1.39	5.81	0.81
Palmeiras	27.36	0.00	9.39	20.16	12.82	5.37	7.06	0.00	3.27	4.72	0.00	0.80
Ponte Preta	49.98	0.00	5.58	8.60	18.70	0.00	2.28	0.00	6.19	12.12	0.00	0.65
Santos	36.59	0.00	8.92	10.15	25.49	4.44	0.00	0.00	0.00	6.06	0.00	0.75
São Paulo	31.24	0.00	8.28	12.42	30.58	2.12	0.00	0.00	1.16	11.75	0.00	0.75
Vasco	41.20	0.00	5.23	12.63	17.76	0.00	4.08	0.00	0.00	5.09	0.00	0.74
Vitória	49.00	0.00	4.30	8.07	12.13	4.77	0.00	0.00	0.00	2.82	0.00	0.64

• Source: Author’s elaboration. Note: BR = Broadcasting Revenues; SB = Signing Bonuses; TS = Ticket Sales; SM = Sponsorship/ Marketing; RT = Federative Rights Transfer; MP = Fan Membership Program; SR = Property/Social Revenues; TI = Tax Incentives; AW = Awards; OR = Other Revenues; FR = Financial Revenues.

América Mineiro recorded the highest median revenue percentage among all clubs in the Broadcasting Rights category, accounting for 56.50% of the total. It's important to note that no other club showed such a pronounced dependency on a single revenue source, except Fortaleza, which boosted revenues from ticket sales and the fan membership program due to its participation in lower divisions of the championship. The relevance of Broadcasting Rights revenues for football clubs is highlighted, corroborating the findings of (Carmichael et al., 2011; Costa & Marinho, 2005; Gonçalves & Carvalho, 2006), who pointed out this as the main income for football clubs. Furthermore, Marques and Costa (2016) pointed out that the main sources of ordinary revenues for Brazilian football clubs are broadcasting rights, marketing, ticket sales, and fan membership programs.

The sale of players, a common phenomenon in Brazilian clubs, is highly relevant when analyzing revenues. Often, clubs need working capital and make player sales to pay overdue salaries, suppliers, and taxes. Along with this, it's noted that Spanish clubs also make sales to reduce the level of debt and lower the level of financial instability (Urdaneta-Camacho et al., 2022).

Regarding the HHI indicator, the clubs that showed the highest levels of revenue diversification were Internacional and Athletico. On the other hand, the club with the lowest revenue diversification level was América MG. It is pointed out that maximizing revenues from sponsorship, ticket sales, fan membership, and economic rights transfer reduces dependence on broadcasting rights revenue. Therefore, clubs should seek strategies to maximize these revenues so that there is a higher level of sustainability of the main sources of income and not be exposed to only one source of resources.

Table 5 shows the results of the econometric models proposed in the research. It's noteworthy that four models are presented: pooled models and fixed-effects models with data during the 2012-2021 period and pooled models and fixed-effects models with data during the 2012-2019 period. It's indicated that the pooled models explained around approximately 20% of the variability of the HHI indicator, while the fixed-effects models explained 38%.

Table 5
Econometrical Models

	Pooled (2013-2021)	Fixed Effects (2013-2021)	Pooled (2013-2019)	Fixed Effects (2013-2019)
Constant	-0.074		-0.575
Rentability	0.022*	0.019+	0.015+	0.010
Indebtedness	-0.005	0.010	-0.008*	-0.006
Profitability	-0.020	-0.006	-0.011	-0.006
Operating Cash Flow	-0.016	-0.063	0.016	-0.046
Size	0.038		0.001
CBF Ranking	0.076	-0.028	0.130+	0.085+
Division	0.055+	0.018	0.086*	0.052
Promotion	-0.044	-0.055*	-0.031	-0.051*
Relegation	-0.065*	-0.037	-0.075*	-0.048
Num.Obs.	208	208	208	160
R2	0.234	0.476	0.261	0.509
Adjusted R2	0.199	0.383	0.216	0.390
F Statistics	3.278***	6.229***	2.769*	6.587***

• Source: Author’s elaboration. Note: + significant at the 10% level, * significant at the 5% level, ** significant at the 1% level, and *** significant at the 0.1% level.

The positive effect of rentability in the previous year on the revenue diversification indicator for three of the four proposed models is noteworthy. Thus, this year's club rentability increment positively impacts revenue diversification in the following year. It is argued that the increase in revenues relative to their assets and cost reduction, highlighted as good management practices, positively affect the club's ability to diversify its revenue sources. As Wicker et al. (2015) pointed out, resource diversification is fundamental for the financial sustainability of clubs, as it can reduce their volatility. Moreover, the results of Urdaneta-Camacho et al. (2022) suggest that management and governance practices influenced the level of revenue diversification of Spanish clubs.

Regarding sports performance, measured by the CBF ranking, it stands out that this has a positive effect in the models that disregard the years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the international and national championships in which the club performed well compared to the others positively impacted revenue diversification. On the other hand, access to a higher division negatively affected the fixed effects models. This effect can be explained by the relevance of the revenues from the broadcasting rights of the Brazilian championship, especially for smaller clubs. Access implies an increase in this source that is not accompanied, in the same proportion, by the other sources of revenue.

It is worth noting that there is evidence in the literature for the relationship between football clubs' sports performance and their revenue sources (Barajas et al., 2005; Bradbury, 2019). Barajas et al. (2005) point out that the indicator that contemplates the aggregated sports performance of the competitions was more relevant to determine the revenues. Bradbury (2019) highlights that revenues are positively associated with sports performance. Finally, Zambom-Ferraresi et al. (2017b) stress that clubs with access to the highest financial resources are expected to dominate the championships they participate in.

5. CONCLUDING REMARKS

This research aimed to analyze the influence of economic-financial and sporting performances on the diversification of revenues of Brazilian football clubs. For this, total revenues were collected and, when disclosed in a segregated manner, classified according to the methodology proposed by APFUT (2017).

By analyzing the clubs' total revenue, we can observe the existence of some clubs with high revenue and others with low revenue, demonstrating heterogeneity in the sample. However, when comparing the strategy for obtaining revenues, the composition pattern is usually maintained, i.e., the percentages of the categories remain similar even with the increase in total revenue. This aspect is mainly motivated by the relevance of revenues from broadcasting rights. Clubs that can maximize other sources consequently reduce their dependence on this revenue category.

Despite the similarities in revenue generation strategies, it is noteworthy that large and small clubs present some differences concerning sources of revenue. Smaller clubs greatly depend on revenues from broadcasting rights and fan programs. In comparison, larger clubs have greater revenue-raising potential from selling athletes and sponsorships. The larger clubs displayed a higher revenue diversification level than smaller clubs due to this structure of revenue sources being dependent on the broadcasting rights contract for the Brazilian championship.

The econometric models pointed to the influence of only one economic variable on revenue diversification: profitability. Thus, elements such as profitability, indebtedness, and operational cash flow generation were not determinants to explain the HHI indicator. The sporting performance also influenced the clubs' revenue diversification. While performance in competitions, measured through the CBF Ranking, had a positive effect, promotion to higher divisions had a negative effect. The contribution of this research is highlighted by collectively indicating the effect of sporting and economic variables in the same model, encompassing the clubs' sporting and economic performance.

It is noteworthy that governance practices, according to the literature (Dimitropoulos & Scafarto, 2021; Ruta et al., 2020; Urdaneta-Camacho et al., 2022), influence the economic performance of football clubs. Although not directly measured in this study, it is suggested that profitability can be achieved through internal controls that enhance marketing actions that increase revenues from sponsorship and member-supporter programs that attract more members. Thus, it is argued that Brazilian football clubs can increase the diversification of their revenues by implementing governance practices in resource management.

It is important to highlight that sporting performance can impact club revenues not only in the current period. For example, relegation reduces revenues from broadcasting rights, while title conquest can increase future revenues through marketing, ticket sales, and player sales. In addition, a positive cycle can be achieved with the increase in revenues and the consequent increase in investment in athletes, as discussed in Baroncelli and Lago (2006). Although not deeply addressed in this study, discussing these elements in future research is recommended.

Finally, it is possible to discuss aspects related to club transparency through revenue analysis. Some analyses were hindered insofar as clubs that did not disclose their statements in the year in question, or in the case of inadequate disclosure, did not make it possible to classify their revenues. It is therefore recommended that clubs disclose in detail the sources of revenues to the extent of their relevance. Disclosing too many items together would also be negative, which could influence the user's perception of the information.

One of the study's limitations is the lack of more detailed disclosure about revenues, which means that some clubs are excluded from the analysis. It should also be mentioned that some clubs did not disclose the statements in certain periods, even after the law's requirement, and PROFUT's requirements for those who adhered to it. In addition, for some cases of significant values, there is no explanatory note to assist in understanding the economic fact related to the value.

Future research is suggested to investigate the expense behavior of football clubs, also seeking the relationship between surplus and deficit. Analyzing sporting performance and economic performance is suggested to examine this relationship. It is also suggested to analyze the clubs' cash flows. Furthermore, a comparison with clubs from other countries could be enlightening as it could reveal the idiosyncratic characteristics of the countries. Also, more extended periods could help understand how the countries' macroeconomic cycles influence the clubs' revenues. Finally, associating the effect of social networks and the clubs' brand with their respective revenues is an interesting research stream.

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Edited by

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Luiz Gaio https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3106-7649

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Bruno Félix https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6183-009X

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  21 Oct 2024
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  31 Jan 2023
• Reviewed
  07 May 2023
• Accepted
  26 June 2023