DISCRIMINATION IN MANAGING FOOTBALLERS: EVIDENCE FROM ITALY

The paper aims to prove how discrimination based both on nationality and on race affects the labor market of professional footballers and the strategies of football club managers. The method concerns an analysis of existing literature on discrimination in sport and a quantitative analysis based on an exploratory approach that compares the wage differences of Serie A footballers with the performance of each group of players. Analysing Serie A clubs, the results validate the existence of discrimination against Italian and white players. On the contrary, considering separately small and big clubs, the findings related to small club highlight discrimination against foreigners and black players. This paper highlights the existence of a discrimination strategy applied by managers of professional football clubs. Practical considerations can be made with reference to the error typology on managing football clubs: big clubs tend to overestimate the foreigners and blacks contribution to disadvantage of Italians and whites; small clubs are inclined to overrate Italians and whites contribution to disadvantage of foreigner and the black footballers. To reduce discrimination, clubs have to link remuneration contracts of players with their performance.