Thesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Thesis - Essay Example est footballers of all time is currently the president of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).1Further, football has become a big business game, and all of the English Premier League clubs are currently listed on the London Stock Exchange. By purchasing popular players from different parts of the world, especially Asia, and by holding their training camps in different parts of the world, i.e., effectively touring, clubs are using strategic marketing, thereby creating a significant source of income. This is due to the large population and the rapid development in economic terms of countries to which they are marketing (Ashton-Jones et al., 2008:a). For example, the first appearance of Chinese Lie Tie and Sun Jihai in the English Premier League was broadcast in more than 700 million Chinese homes (Desbordes, 2006, p. 7). On the other hand, leisure activities have been proven to be â€Å"a normal good;† i.e., the demand for leisure increases with increasing income. Research has also shown that the residents of the wealthiest countries spend more time engaging in leisure activities, such as football (Houston and Wilson, 2002).2 Contemporary indication shows that economic prosperity may lead to sporting success than the other way around. Recent evidence indicates that after 1996 since the Bosman ruling, the success in football is dominated by the England ´s richest four teams (i.e. Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea) called â€Å"the big four†. The dominance of these teams since 1996 has led to think that economic prosperity may lead to sporting success in football. Thus, whether economic prosperity leads to sporting success in the case of football or vice versa is unclear and needs to be proved empirically. This is needed to find out the contributing factors for the widening splits between richer and poorer football clubs. This can be considered as a type of inequality between haves and have-nots in football market. This inequality is now