Nationality preferences for labour in the international football industry

This paper tests consumer and co-worker nationalistic preferences by measuring the effect of team nationality composition on fan attendance and overall team quality using professional football teams in the world's five largest football leagues. Little evidence is found to support the hypothesis that fans or co-workers discriminate based upon the player's nationality. Thus, the under-representation of various nationalities can be concluded to originate from a club's ownership and/or management. These results are similar to the racial bias revealed by English club owners as found by Szymanski and Preston.