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How Could a Football Player Transfer Business be More Successful? A Model-Based on Game Theory Approach

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Sports Management, Department of Sports Management, Faculty of Sport Science, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor of Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

3 PhD Candidate in Industrial Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, K.N Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Purpose: Nowadays, the football business and players’ transfer have become integral in managing professional sports, which has become a pivotal part. Therefore, clubs try to sell, buy, and remove players. This study aimed to model the transfer of players based on the game theory approach. The Nash bargaining equilibrium was determined for the player, seller, and buyer club.
Methodology: A model was represented in terms of clubs’ profit, players’ wages, and bargaining power of each party using a generalized Nash bargaining model. By solving the model, the optimal transfer fee was calculated.
Findings: Results show that the transfer fee depends on the bargaining power of clubs. Bargaining power of players and factors may be the rank of the source club in the previous season, the financial value of the source club, age, nationality and height of the player, performance of the player in the last season, number of substitutes in and out of the field, number of goals and assistances, number of yellow, red, and double yellow cards in previous season all are experimental factors on the bargaining power of players. Notably, the factors may differ in different leagues and various posts played by players.
Originality: Game theory is a theoretical framework for solving conflicts in political and social affairs. This study used this framework to solve the problem of transferring football players from one club to another, which is unique.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Sports Business Journal
Volume 3, Issue 2 - Serial Number 6
May 2023
Pages 13-26
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