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Fabio Wagner is a research assistant and doctoral student in the Department of Sport Economics and Sociology at the Institute of Sport Science at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. After graduating in Sport, Geography and Educational Sciences for Gymnasium Teaching (M.Ed.) at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Fabio Wagner was part of the first year class in Profile C, International Sport Management (M.Sc.) at the Institute of Sport Science at JGU Mainz. In his Master's thesis, he investigated the travel motivation of German football fans at the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. He then began working as a research assistant. The working title of his doctorate is: Regulatory Mechanisms in the World of Sport. Here he is increasingly focusing on national and international professional football. Fabio Wagner is involved on a voluntary basis as 1st chairman of the co-founded football club FC Suebia Charlottenhöhe 2011 e.V. (fc-suebia.de)
This study perceives professional European football as one of the most relevant event-related entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) worldwide. It also identifies a healthy sporting competition in the five most popular European football leagues (Spain, England, Germany, Italy, and France), the “big five,” as a key pillar for the functioning of this ecosystem. By applying a quantitative approach, competitive intensity (CI) is measured for all big five leagues for 21 seasons (1998/99 to 2018/19). The chosen method does not only convey an overall indication of the competitive health of the entire league but also provides detailed information on the four important sub-competitions (championship race, qualification for Champions League or Europa League, and the fight against relegation). In all five leagues, seasonal CI tends to decrease over time, and especially over the last decade. The main reason is a decline in the intensity of the championship race while all other sub-competitions show relatively robust CI values. Overall, it can be concluded that the competitive health of the big five is intact, but the dwindling CI of the championship races can harm the EE of professional European football in the long run. Accordingly, it should be closely monitored in the future.
Fabio Wagner; Holger Preuss; Thomas Könecke. A Central Element of Europe’s Football Ecosystem: Competitive Intensity in the “Big Five”. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3097 .
AMA StyleFabio Wagner, Holger Preuss, Thomas Könecke. A Central Element of Europe’s Football Ecosystem: Competitive Intensity in the “Big Five”. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (6):3097.
Chicago/Turabian StyleFabio Wagner; Holger Preuss; Thomas Könecke. 2021. "A Central Element of Europe’s Football Ecosystem: Competitive Intensity in the “Big Five”." Sustainability 13, no. 6: 3097.
PurposeFor managers of sports leagues, it is crucial to produce an attractive competition. For that to happen, it is vital to consider that leagues frequently have more sub-competitions than “just” the championship. In European top football leagues, for instance, four sub-competitions are common (championship, qualification for Champions- or Europa League, avoiding relegation). This paper introduces a new method for measuring competitive intensity (CI) in round-robin sports leagues considering all relevant sub-competitions and applies it to Germany's Bundesliga.Design/methodology/approachThe newly developed model calculates a CI-Index for each sub-competition and the league as a whole. The application to the Bundesliga analyzes its viability and the development of the league's CI over the past 22 seasons.FindingsThe newly introduced CI-Indices prove to be a viable tool for evaluating a league's competitive intensity. The application to the Bundesliga shows that the seasonal CI dropped after 2009/10, which can mainly be attributed to a decline in the championship's CI.Practical implicationsThe results show that it is important to facilitate a high CI in each of Bundesliga's four sub-competitions. Efforts have to be made to ensure that especially the Europa League remains as attractive as possible for the participating teams and their fans because this sub-competition constantly makes the greatest contribution to the seasonal CI.Originality/valueThe new method measures competitive intensity by quantifying the different sub-competitions and their contribution to the seasonal CI. This allows the organizers of sports leagues to assess the intensity of the individual sub-competitions as well as the league as a whole.
Fabio Wagner; Holger Preuss; Thomas Könecke. Measuring competitive intensity in sports leagues. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal 2020, 10, 599 -620.
AMA StyleFabio Wagner, Holger Preuss, Thomas Könecke. Measuring competitive intensity in sports leagues. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal. 2020; 10 (5):599-620.
Chicago/Turabian StyleFabio Wagner; Holger Preuss; Thomas Könecke. 2020. "Measuring competitive intensity in sports leagues." Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal 10, no. 5: 599-620.