The Application of the Business System Concept to the Analysis of Football Business

Since ancient times, sport is considered as one of the necessary elements underlying the harmonious functioning of society. It plays an important part in shaping the political and economic image of the nation and its perceived global competitiveness. For this reason, sports sector is often treated not only as a tool for improving the physical and emotional well-being of the society, but also as a tool in the international area for promoting investment, developing international business linkages and socio-cultural relations between different cultures, as well as enhancing the political role of the nation. The growing economic attractiveness of sports makes it increasingly exposed to the participation of private business structures, which are interested in generating positive cash flows. In this context, the sports sector gradually evolves from being solely a public activity towards becoming a business sector, where the main role is played not by the athletes who strive for sportive goals, but business representatives who aim for an economic benefit. In the analysis of football business - one of the most commercialized sports nowadays - the systemic approach should be adopted The relevance of systemic approach relies on the assumption that in the sport business, benefit can only be achieved in close cooperation of various sport business subjects. Their linkages lead to the emergence of a certain business system. If sport is regarded as one of the business sectors, then the application of business system methodology can be fully justified. Football remains the most popular team-game in the world, which creates huge income flows in the most developed "football countries" and is a prospective business area in the emerging 'football countries". At present, economically strong football systems exist only in the developed countries, first of all - in Western Europe. In the less economically advanced countries, the developers of football face the challenge of football's economic assessment problem, which appears from not enough developed football business environment. The interest to create strong football business system calls for the search of the ways of popularizing football and boosting the economic potential of its participants. In the research literature, the analysis of football business is based on the presumption that it is a strong business sector, which is able to generate income and whose participants have the ability to perform at profit. However, such studies tend to ignore the business processes within the sports business. Besides, the systemic approach in football business is usually limited to presenting the structural elements of the system and the superficial analysis of their importance. These aspects can be better addressed by employing the business systems perspective. In this article we seek to structure football business by using the business system perspective. The outcome of this article is a more or less universal structure of football business system that enables a more thorough conceptual analysis of the football business (and, to some extent, the sport business as a whole).