Designing New Funding Models for Russian Football Clubs

Abstract

In Europe, most football clubs have long been positioned as business projects, which are active in financial markets and apply various funding tools. The 2018 FIFA World Cup inspired a new wave of interest in Russian football and created attractive conditions for applying new funding tools. The specifics of the economy surrounding sports development in Russia have led to a situation whereby most sports clubs depend on limited apportionments of budgetary funds, and require novel sources of additional funding for different development purposes, e.g. constructing stadiums, training grounds, youth academies and everyday operations. The aim of this research is to examine the best foreign practice in the field of attracting funding by sports clubs and propose adaptations for Russian conditions. This work presents a practice-oriented review of the most modern funding tools used in football, and analyses the capital structure of European football clubs, their funding policies and preferences. The competitive level of the European and Russian clubs, their relative financial capabilities, and their development prospects were considered, and the analytical mapping process ascribed prospective investment ratings to the Russian clubs. In a similar manner, recommendations as to how practical funding examples from European clubs may be adapted and followed in the Russian context are described. By comparison and contrast, likely candidates among Russian clubs for similar economic strategies are identified. The sources of information utilised for this process include annual reports from European football clubs, research studies, and academic articles, along with any available contextual information on Russian clubs. The study was limited by the secrecy of reporting in Russian football and the weak financial position of most Russian clubs, which restricts their funding opportunities. However, despite the special development model of domestic Russian football and the harsh economic conditions, the proposals formulated in this work can be implemented into the practical activity of any club, regardless its scale and can contribute to improving financial sustainability, competitive results and the integrated development of Russian clubs. The methods proposed can act as a catalyst for the gradual corporatisation of Russian football clubs and will be of interest to investors, business analysts, economic scientists and football fans alike.