MEASURING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE SLOVAK FIRST AND SECOND LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUBS

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is widely used for efficiency assessment in many sports, specifically football. This study applies the DEA method to measure the efficiency of the Slovak first and second league football clubs in the season 2020/21. In this context, each football club is a decision-making unit (DMU), where two inputs are selected: the number of players and the total squad market value. The total points obtained during the season 2020/21 is the output. The input-oriented CCR and BCC model evaluate the football clubs' efficiency. Overall, the research results show that Slovak clubs are inefficient and use more resources than necessary or choose a bad strategy to achieve their goals. The analysis results also show that the 1st and 2nd leagues winners were always labelled as efficient DMUs during the period studied. The applied approach can help football club managers identify relevant weaknesses and focus on efficiency strategies in the future.