The financial impact of the financial fair play policy on Spanish football

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the impact that the Financial Fair Play Policy has had on the financial results of the clubs in the Spanish Professional Football League (LaLiga). It is a single-sector study whose materiality lies in testing whether the boost to responsible economic management (the main consequence of the implementation of the Financial Fair Play Policy) was reflected in companies' profits, financial results and other important indicators. For this purpose, we have adopted a quasiexperimental study design before and after the regulatory event. In this case, the event whose effects were examined was the entry into force of the Economic Control Regulation in the financial year 2012, and the hypothetically affected object was the financial performance of the clubs. This type of design is best suited to evaluate the object of study before and after a specific event, in order to determine whether this event has had any effect on the object.