The Americanization of European football

TLDR

European football’s league structure and revenue‑sharing arrangements raise the question of whether to maintain open leagues or adopt a closed‑league model, and whether such reforms would benefit consumers. The paper proposes a framework to assess how competition structure—specifically whether teams compete in both national and international tournaments—affects performance under different revenue‑sharing regimes. Using this framework, the authors argue for establishing a European Superleague while discouraging teams from simultaneously participating in both the Superleague and their national leagues. The analysis yields policy recommendations and highlights regulatory challenges that arise from restructuring European football competitions. Authors: Thomas Hoehn and Stefan Szymanski.

Abstract

European football The structure of leagues and revenue sharing Will European football keep leagues open, or adopt the American system of closed leagues? Would this reform be to the benefit of consumers? This paper develops a framework to analyse the consequences of the structure of competition – whether teams play in both national and international competitions or not – and the effects on performance of revenue sharing among teams within the same league. The authors argue in favour of the creation of a European Superleague and against teams playing both in the Superleague and in national leagues. They derive a number of policy conclusions and examine various regulatory issues in European football. — Thomas Hoehn and Stefan Szymanski