Presenter: Daniel Ian Frank

Faculty Sponsor: Brenda K. Bushouse

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Public Policy

Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, Auditorium, A51

ABSTRACT

This study will investigate the relationship between foreign ownership and community investment in European football. Since the 1970s, sport-affiliated community investment schemes have been part of the social services network in the United Kingdom (McGuire 2008). These schemes, originally designed to combat violence at matches by addressing root causes, now generally provide community programming associated with individual football clubs. In European leagues, a trend of teams transitioning from local businesses to corporations with a global reach has been paralleled by a rise in foreign ownership and governments using sport to improve their reputation (Rohde & Breuer 2016). Those trends have reshaped incentives for owners running football clubs. Community involvement and investment by clubs has become more scrutinized by supporter groups and media, but despite research detailing how ownership influences the broader activities of clubs there is no research examining how ownership influences community investment schemes. The English Football League, the most affluent league system in Europe, will be used as a model for comparison with other league structures. The system is both governed privately, through league-based and confederation governance, and publicly, through financial incentives and intervention in extreme cases. The emergence of the Independent Football Regulator (2026) in the United Kingdom, “established…for the benefit of fans and the local communities that football clubs serve,” reinforces the need for information as the regulator develops. The study utilizes public financial accounts, sporting data, and ownership accounts to conduct statistical analysis on what factors influence the strength of Community Trust organizations, club attached nonprofits.