Investigating the Dynamics of Professional Football Player Transfers

Introduction

Preface

The corresponding research proposal development effort would be underscored by the effort to develop effective empirical and structural research procedures which could be utilised in further research endeavours concerning the selected research topic. including masters dissertation help. To this effect, the research proposal would be specifying the research process constituents such as the background of the research, the research problem, the research rationale, the research aim and objectives and the associated research questions developed from the research criteria specified by the research questions. Furthermore, the research proposal would be integrated within the general structure of the future research progression as well and towards this objective, the subsequent research proposal would be involving the outlines of the review of accumulated existing scholarly literature on the selected topic and would delineate the framework of the research methodology segment which would be fundamental in terms of conducting the research data collection and analysis process.

Research background

The aspects concerning the transfer of professional football players to different clubs have been generally dubious from the perspective of utilisation of the reputations of individual sportsmen by the sports institutions. Bond, Widdop and Chadwick (2018) have specified such transfers to be essential gambles in terms of the attempts to garner maximised profit from the commercial value of extensively acclaimed, celebrity footballers. Thus, the variables of the ambitions of individual clubs and the sportsmen who could be getting transferred have been the subject of extensive public interest for dedicated fans of such individual players in the previous years.

Research problem

The research problem consists of the inadequacy of academic endeavours in properly evaluating the sources of actual influence which direct procedures through which new agreements are developed by professional football management organisations (clubs) within the established legal architecture of player transfer.

Research rationale

Brocard and Lepetit (2018) have observed that the elements of analysis and intensive scrutiny based on exploratory study are integral to the formulation of adequate measures of comprehension and knowledge regarding the interest dynamics and power matrix which influence the transfer of professional football players to their potential host sports organisations. To this effect, the significance of the selected research topic has been the concentration of efforts towards the prospective development of future research processes through which an empirical and evidence based mechanism could be developed to determine the sources of professional player transfer systems in the global football discipline related sports industry.

Research aim

The research aim consists of assessment of the deterministic potential of the professional football players, the clubs and the agents of the players concerning exertion of influence which could ultimately direct the policy implementation procedures involving inter-club transfer of the players.

Research Objectives

To identify the ascendency of influence of the football organisations concerning formulation of deterministic policies of player transfer deals at the inter-club levels.

To assess the impediments which might materialise, during the procedures of transferring the players.

To evaluate the employed strategies by the clubs for the purpose of player sourcing.

To recommend the measures of future progression for the prospective research study.

Research Questions

What is the measure of ascendency of influence of the football organisations concerning formulation of deterministic policies of player transfer deals at the inter-club levels?

What are the impediments which might materialise, during the procedures of transferring the players?

What are the employed strategies by the clubs for the purpose of player sourcing?

What are the measures of future progression for the prospective research study?

Literature review

Chadwick et al. (2018) have determined that the complicated and extensive negotiations involved in finalisation of the transfer of professional football players at the inter-club levels, encompass four different participants, namely the clubs which are selling and purchasing the professional sportsmen, the sportsmen themselves and the agents appointed by the individual players for the purpose of representing them and negotiate on behalf of them. From the research perspectives of De Marco (2018), the measures of extensive influence required to effectively direct such procedures of player transfers, involving careful and prospective calculations and representation of differing interests, in most of the cases, are multifarious and the contributions from each of the involved stakeholders also could vary as per the conditionalities associated with such negotiations and player supply undertakings. Dougherty, Slevc and Grand (2019) have suggested that the onus of exerting the deterministic influence on the conclusion of such deals and professional agreements formulation in between different clubs as well as between the organisations and the individual players, is firmly posited on the host organisations since such clubs could decline any proposal from other football management institutions involving the sales of valued and successful players. Primarily, as has been argued by Duff and Panja (2017), the casus belli of such refusal could be absence of particular agreements in between the stakeholders concerning previously forwarded offers.

On the other hand, Egilsson (2018) have been off the opinion that such perceptions are mostly conjectural in nature since, the reality of current conditions highlight the fact that, for the majority of the clubs, accepting the progressive bidding processes, involving the successful and outstandingly performing players, becomes the culmination of incremental pressures which are exerted by external factors on such organisations. ELLIOTT (2017) has supported such analysis to the extent of stating that such could be the reality even in the cases where absence of complete compatibility valuation could be a definite possibility in terms of finalisation of such transfers. Furthermore, Gardiner and Welch (2016) have added to such perceptions that the clubs are also extensively influenced, pertaining the finalisation of such decisions, by the internal factors such as exacerbating complications related to financial conditions.

In this context, Gerke and Wäsche (2019) have provided a hypothetical instance to better delineate the quandary which such professional, international football management clubs could come to experience. Such an instance brings forth the condition of the compulsion for any such club to formulate a definite decision concerning whether it has to maintain a player, rated to be worth of many millions in terms of performance based commercial value, for the specific reason that any other championship winning club could be offering an unwarrantable sum of less than a million in the prevalent currency (£) which could be squarely agreed to be unacceptable. The quandary become evident from the perspective that even players who are rated highly due to their performance or commercial value, could become problematic to be sustained by their clubs if the opportunities of putting such players on the field could not materialise.

To this effect, Gligor et al (2019) have outlined that such complicated conditions could prompt the clubs to accept upfront sales of the players for the purpose of infusing much required capital into the coffers of such organisations. The implications of immediacy of financial management could thus also influence the long term player management related policies of the clubs. However, Kelly and Chatziefstathiou (2018) have specified that such clubs, prior to officially selling their players to other organisations, generally attempt to encompass an extensive range of particularities, in the form of differential clauses of the final agreement. The purpose of such an approach could be better understood from the perspective of garnering sales propositions of greater benefit regarding the instances where the transferred player could provide greater profit and commercial value based success to the client club.

Involving the arguments stated by Masteralexis (2016), it becomes intelligible that agreements of conveniences transpire more often than not in between the host and the client clubs on the basis of the purchasing football organisation concurring to remit the extra measure of financial value to the selling club as could be stipulated in the contract in favour of the organisation which could concurrently have the valued sportsman. The purpose could be comprehended in the manner of having to generate the maximised benefits through focusing upon the commercial value attached to the performance of the players under consideration, in the due course of future. Another aspect latent to such agreements of convenience has been highlighted by Patnaik et al. (2019) to be the possibility of receiving particular percentages as windfall of sales by the sports organisations attempting to transfer/sell their players to the purchasers, in future, on the prospect of recurrent transfers or sales of such players to further and new clubs at various unspecified periods in future. To this effect, the agreements of convenience are infused with clauses of comprehensive and recurrence based transfers of players.

However, from the perspectives of Rossi, Semens and Brocard (2016), the purchasing clubs do tend to refrain from consenting to such presumptive conditions based clauses in instances where the purchasing clubs could possess extensive, to the point of redundancy, financial and human resources as well as options to source players from multifarious suppliers. From a holistic perspective, Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) have observed that such conditions could culminate in a war of bidding in between multiple competing football clubs whenever such teams could demonstrate their interests in particularly top rated and valued sports personnel.

Involving further strands of research, Velema, Wen and Zhou (2020) have emphasised upon the notion that the power to influence the process of global football transfer is most extensively exerted by the personal interests of the individual players, especially if such players are highly valued and have managed to perform to the extent of gaining top of the chart ranks in global football discipline. This could be explained as financial aspects related to transfers of players could be agreed upon by the individual teams or clubs to a certain extent, however, only the players could finalise the legal decisions of switching over to new clubs. Thus, the authority of demonstration of either refusal or consent to accept new ownerships of themselves is firmly relegated to the individual football players only.

Concerning such scheme of developments, Kelly and Chatziefstathiou (2018) have the significance of persuasion tactics which are mostly employed by the standard football organisations and teams concerning the attempt to convince individual reluctant players to switch over to other clubs involving circumstances where maintaining such players could become a greater jeopardy, in financial terms, in comparison to capitalising on the commercial value of the exhibited performance of such players, in the longer terms. One of the most favoured tactics is to effectively clarify too the unwilling player that the person would be restricted from participating in team functions during his continuation tenure with the host organisation. However, Rossi (2018) has suggested that such persuasion tactic could become counterproductive in the form of enhancement of the severity of economic burden for such clubs who could have to sustain highly paid players, to the extent of hundreds of thousands of Euros on a monthly basis, while such players could be relegated to the reserve bench. This implies imposition of severe restrictions on such host clubs in terms of utilisation of the performance of such players to bring in additional benefits within both the long and short term based functionalities.

Methodology

The Researcher would be selecting Epistemological research procedures through which the accuracy, scope and empirical orientation of the entire research undertaking could be preserved and ensured. Furthermore, the research methods would include efforts to obtain detailed and accurate information involving the research topic under consideration and the Epistemological research methods would provide suitable assistance to meet the research objectives.

According to the research of Kumar (2019), Epistemology, alternatively known as Constructivism, emphasises upon the recognition of reality to be the direct outcome of human intelligence based functions and assessment of the associated experiences which could be drawn from such functions. This could be alternatively identified as explanation of Epistemology to be the proponent of reality as a definitive construct of human intelligence based analytical perceptions.

Research Philosophy

According to Fletcher (2017), four different strands of research philosophies constitute Epistemology. These are Pragmatism, Positivism, Realism and Interpretivism. Out of such subsets of philosophical strands, the Positivist research philosophy adheres to the discourse that examination and observation based factual knowledge obtainment could only enable the measure of accuracy which is crucial for any research undertaking. Furthermore, the scholarly modified version of Positivism, comprehensible as Post-positivism, would be selected by the Researcher for the purpose of collection of information and Primary research data as well as for the completion of interpretation of such collected data into discernible logical explanations which could be statistically verifiable as well as effective to highlight the research outcomes in terms of meeting the research requirements which have been outlined in the research objective section. Thus, the Post-positivist research philosophy would be effective in enabling the Researcher to properly quantify the research process based data collection results into empirical observation based outcomes.

Research Approach

The most prominent research approaches which are utilised for any research project are two in number, such as Deductive and Inductive research approaches. Concerning the future research project, the Research would be selecting the Deductive research approach since this approach facilitates the testing and evaluation of existing theoretical constructs and emphasises upon the process of retrograde research data utilisation as well as collection of new data on the basis of field research processes. The garnered benefits would be the formulation of an ascending logical framework of the data outcome analysis and the utilisation of empirical evidence based research hypothesis validation.

Research Design

Primarily, three different classifications of research designs exist for any research project, namely, Explanatory, Exploratory and Descriptive. The Researcher would be selecting the Deductive Research Design for the purpose of resolving the research problem. This research design implies a strictly formal research process and the necessity of extensive research data application is integral to such a research design which, in turn, assists in the process of maintaining relevance and significance of the future research project.

Sampling method

The application of non-probability sampling and Stratified Probability Sampling would be undertaken by the Researcher in the future research project. The collection of Interview based Qualitative data would involve the utilisation of Non-probability Sampling to methodically select predetermined and manageable numbers of managerial officials of identified football associations. Stratified Probability Sampling would be assisting the Researcher to represent all of the involved sub-groups within the Quantitative research population sample in the most equitable and proportionate manner. This would contribute in resource allocation for the data collection process and would further ensure source variations to authenticate the diverging Quantitative data strands.

Data collection

The collection of research data would be performed through utilisation of Quantitative and Qualitative data sources. The professional players and their agents would constitute the Quantitative data sources and midlevel officials of a particular number of identified football associations/teams would comprise the Qualitative data sources. The Researcher would utilise close ended and multiple options based questions to perform a survey to generate Quantitative data from research participants and the process of Direct Interview through open ended, semi-structured questions would be utilised to garner Qualitative data from the selected research sample. Thematic analysis would be performed on the Interview Transcripts based collected Qualitative data so as to evaluate the viability of the research hypotheses through identified data themes and the application of Likert’s 5 Point Response Scale analysis would be performed on the survey generated Quantitative data so as to statistically analyse the preponderance of identified data outcomes.

Ethical considerations

The Researcher would be progressing cautiously to avoid any legal complication in the discourse of the research project and would be compliant to the directives promulgated by the Data Protection Act (1998). Under such compliance measures, the identity of the research participants would be classified and the research participants would be anonymised. Legal affidavits would be provided by the Researcher to not disclose personal information of the research participants to third parties without obtaining legal permission from such personnel at first. Consent from the selected research participant would be obtained through presenting them with research participation requests and disclosure letters concerning the purpose and objectives of the research. Furthermore, the Researcher would be cognisant enough to refrain from utilisation of persuasive and coercive methods with the purpose of information obtainment from the survey and interview process associated research participants. Finally, the participants would be at complete liberty to rescind their participation intent at any point during the research data collection process.

Reference List

Bond, A.J., Widdop, P. and Chadwick, S., 2018. Football’s emerging market trade network: ego network approach to world systems theory. Managing Sport and Leisure, 23(1-2), pp.70-91.

Brocard, J.F. and Lepetit, C., 2018. The labour markets of professional football players. Routledge Handbook of Football Business and Management, pp.294-307.

Chadwick, S., Parnell, D., Widdop, P. and Anagnostopoulos, C. eds., 2018. Routledge Handbook of Football Business and Management. Routledge.

De Marco, N., 2018. Transfers, agents and minors. In Research Handbook on EU Sports Law and Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Dougherty, M.R., Slevc, L.R. and Grand, J.A., 2019. Making research evaluation more transparent: Aligning research philosophy, institutional values, and reporting. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(3), pp.361-375.

Duff, A. and Panja, T., 2017. Football's Secret Trade: How the Player Transfer Market was Infiltrated. John Wiley & Sons.

Egilsson, B., 2018. Supply chain management in professional football. Routledge Handbook of Football Business and Management.

ELLIOTT, E.P.L.R., 2017. Winning the war for talent: Foreign players, status and the English Premier League. In The English Premier League (pp. 98-110). Routledge.

Fletcher, A.J., 2017. Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets method. International journal of social research methodology, 20(2), pp.181-194.

Gardiner, S. and Welch, R., 2016. Player trades, free agents and transfer policies in professional sport. In Research Handbook of Employment Relations in Sport. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gerke, A. and Wäsche, H., 2019. Football, networks, and relationships. Routledge Handbook of football business and management, pp.273-281.

Gligor, D., Gligor, N., Holcomb, M. and Bozkurt, S., 2019. Distinguishing between the concepts of supply chain agility and resilience. The International Journal of Logistics Management.

Kelly, S. and Chatziefstathiou, D., 2018. ‘Trust me I am a Football Agent’. The discursive practices of the players’ agents in (un) professional football. Sport in Society, 21(5), pp.800-814.

Kelly, S. and Chatziefstathiou, D., 2018. ‘Trust me I am a Football Agent’. The discursive practices of the players’ agents in (un) professional football. Sport in Society, 21(5), pp.800-814.

Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications Limited.

Masteralexis, L.P., 2016. Regulating player agents. In Research Handbook of Employment Relations in Sport. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Patnaik, D., Praharaj, H., Prakash, K. and Samdani, K., 2019, March. A study of Prediction models for football player valuations by quantifying statistical and economic attributes for the global transfer market. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on System, Computation, Automation and Networking (ICSCAN) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

Rossi, G., 2018. Agents and intermediaries. Routledge Handbook of Football Business and Management, pp.131-143.

Rossi, G., Semens, A. and Brocard, J.F., 2016. Sports agents and labour markets: evidence from world football. Routledge.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., 2009. Research Onion. Research methods for business students, pp.136-162.

Velema, T.A., Wen, H.Y. and Zhou, Y.K., 2020. Global value added chains and the recruitment activities of European professional football teams. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(2), pp.127-146.

Williams, J., 2017. Game changer?: The English Premier League, big money and world football. In The English Premier League (pp. 163-184). Routledge.

Appendices

Appendix I

From a functionality based perspective, Williams (2017) has drawn attention to the adverse influence, which, could be brought in by such tactic application, on the reputation and public appeal of the clubs. The supporters of such teams would become, through observing the enforced retirement of their most cherished players within the middle of important competitions, extensively discontent. Such adverse impressions on the psyche and perception of the supporters could culminate in the jeopardising of the potential for achievement of success for such teams across the different competitive spectrum within the global football related sports industry.

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