Should European Football Adopt a Revenue-Sharing Scheme?

This week’s Run of Play at Pitch Invasion feature asks whether an American-style revenue-sharing system would be better for European football leagues than the current laissez-faire approach. Two fairly obvious potential benefits:

1. Smaller clubs would be able to compete in the transfer market and, as a result, to challenge for trophies. This would almost certainly spell the end of the big four in England (and its variations in other countries), and lead to significantly more parity within domestic leagues and international club tournaments. Increased competition would make the game more exciting for everyone.

2. The survival of many smaller clubs, and the preservation of their role in local communities, could be secured regardless of their performance or ability to exploit new markets: meaning that local clubs could stay local without passing missed-opportunity costs along to their fans.

Read the full post here, and bookmark Pitch Invasion (“the seminal football website of our time,” as one brilliant observer recently called it) while you’re there.