Abstract for: Applying System Dynamics To Ascertain Sustainability of Italian Football

The aim of this research is to apply system dynamics to a new field of economics of professional football in general and Italian club football in particular to ascertain its sustainability and help generate policy options. Since the problems Italian clubs are facing seem endemic for European football clubs the paper first envisages to explore broader issues such as how business of football differs from other sectors, competitive balance and impact of UEFA Financial Fair Play regulation on the economics of the game before launching into a full sustainability analysis of Italian Serie A. The subject matter is inescapably cross-disciplinary, drawing from finance, accounting and management as well despite being presented as economics of football. The resulting synthesised model is meant to be used as a template for other leagues or individual clubs. Model reveals that for Serie A the current unsustainable trend is set to continue requiring intervention. Two such policy interventions were identified and simulated in the model with favourable outcomes.