Is Egyptian soccer well-positioned for business purposes? Assessing competitive balance in the Egyptian Premier League

IF 3 4区 教育学 Q2 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM
M. Ebrahim, N. D. Pifer, S. Shalaby, Karim Mohamed Mahmoud El Hakim, Hosam El Dien El Sayed Mubarak, James J. Zhang
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Purpose The Egyptian Premier League (EPL) holds a prominent place in Egypt’s sporting culture and serves as the stage for some of Africa’s most competitive soccer clubs. However, the actual competitive balance in this league has come under scrutiny in recent years as the two historically dominant Cairo clubs, Ahly and Zamalek, continue to retain the EPL championship. A major concern is that the competitive imbalance of the EPL may actually be hampering the league’s progress and the progress of soccer in Egypt. In order to more closely assess this situation, the purpose of this paper is to use historical EPL performance data to conduct a series of competitive balance analyses on league results from 1948 to 2014. The findings revealed that competition in the league is almost nonexistent as Ahly and Zamalek continue to enjoy a number of direct and indirect financial benefits that are unrealized by their competitors. The dominance of these clubs has compromised the elements of match uncertainty and drama that are traditionally viewed as being important to the prestige and financial achievements of leagues and teams. Discussion is therefore offered for how the EPL could go about resolving some of its organizational and competitive balance issues. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted four basic measures of competitive balance to conduct descriptive analyses on EPL data that were collected from egyptianfootball.net and the Rec Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation. These analyses began with the EPL’s inaugural season (1948-1949) and extended to the conclusion of the 2014-2015 season. During this timeframe, seven seasons were canceled due to global and political tensions and four more went unfinished. Because these seasons were excluded, the total sample size consisted of 56 seasons, each of which contained between 10 and 24 EPL teams. The data were analyzed using variations of the following competitive balance measures: the range and standard deviation of winning percentages, the ratio of the standard deviation/Noll-Scully approach, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, and five-club concentration ratio. Findings The results confirmed that the league is largely imbalanced, leading the authors to recommend systemic and structural changes that could help promote competitive balance in the league. The call for competitive balance in the EPL was bolstered by a literature review of studies that advocated for parity in professional sports leagues. In the end, the researchers recommend the EPL to improve its organizational policies and consider a revised revenue-sharing system that would allow the small-market teams to survive and thrive. Originality/value The EPL holds a prominent place in Egypt’s sporting culture and serves as the stage for some of Africa’s most competitive soccer clubs. The primary purpose of this study was to perform a series of competitive balance analyses on EPL results from 1948 to 2015 in an effort to better understand the various degrees of competitiveness in the league during this time.
埃及足球是否适合商业用途?评估埃及超级联赛的竞争平衡
目的埃及超级联赛(EPL)在埃及体育文化中占有重要地位,是非洲一些最具竞争力的足球俱乐部的舞台。然而,近年来,随着开罗历史上占据主导地位的两家俱乐部Ahly和Zamalek继续保持英超冠军,这个联赛的实际竞争平衡受到了密切关注。一个主要的担忧是,英超联赛的竞争失衡实际上可能阻碍了联赛的发展和埃及足球的进步。为了更密切地评估这种情况,本文的目的是利用EPL历史表现数据对1948年至2014年的联赛成绩进行一系列竞争平衡分析。调查结果显示,联赛中几乎不存在竞争,因为阿赫利和扎马雷克继续享受着竞争对手无法实现的一些直接和间接的经济利益。这些俱乐部的统治地位损害了比赛的不确定性和戏剧性因素,而这些因素传统上被视为对联赛和球队的声望和财务成就很重要。因此,我们讨论了EPL如何解决其组织和竞争平衡问题。设计/方法/方法本研究采用了四种竞争平衡的基本衡量标准,对从埃及足球网和Rec体育足球统计基金会收集的EPL数据进行了描述性分析。这些分析始于EPL的第一个赛季(1948-1949),并延伸到2014-2015赛季的结束。在此期间,由于全球和政治紧张局势,七季被取消,另有四季未完成。由于这些赛季被排除在外,总样本量由56个赛季组成,每个赛季包含10到24支英超球队。使用以下竞争平衡指标的变化来分析数据:获胜百分比的范围和标准差、标准差/Noll-Scully方法的比率、Herfindahl-Hirschman指数和五俱乐部集中度比率。研究结果证实了联盟在很大程度上是不平衡的,这导致作者建议进行系统和结构的变革,以帮助促进联盟的竞争平衡。对职业体育联盟中提倡平等的研究进行的文献综述支持了对EPL中竞争平衡的呼吁。最后,研究人员建议EPL改进其组织政策,并考虑修订收入共享系统,使小型市场团队能够生存和发展。创意/价值EPL在埃及体育文化中占有重要地位,是非洲一些最具竞争力的足球俱乐部的舞台。本研究的主要目的是对1948年至2015年的英超联赛结果进行一系列竞争平衡分析,以更好地了解这段时间联赛中不同程度的竞争力。
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来源期刊
International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship
International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM-
CiteScore
4.70
自引率
13.60%
发文量
26
期刊介绍: The International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship is the world’s leading journal for the sports marketing industry. Published quarterly, it has met the rigorous standards required for a listing by both PsycINFO and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
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