Eliminate the
Academy:
Changing
European Soccer
for the Better
Connor Carpenter
skilled are in top-tiers of their
Centennial High School
11th Grade
connorcarpenter25@comcast.net
these European soccer clubs
Read More at:
www.perfectingthebusiness.
weebly.com
Soccer is a cornerstone of
European culture, and in
2018, European soccer clubs
collectively made over 20
billion euros. Professional
soccer clubs in Europe that
are most profitable and
nations. Unlike American
sporting leagues where
teams solely play games,
also have the responsibility
of training the next wave of
talent. Clubs have
academies that train youth
as early as four years old
and many clubs must put in
large amounts of resources,
monetary and physical, to
develop these players.
Despite the many resources
put into developing talent,
the majority of those players
will never end up playing for
the first, or top, team of that
club. Clubs instead buy
players who are ready to be
placed on the first team from
foreign academies, making
academies unproductive.
This begs the question: how
effective are European
soccer academies in
developing players to play at
the first team level?
 Now, soccer
academies as a whole
cannot be removed, or there
would be no more high level,
developed soccer in the
future. The question is not
should academies exist, but
to what extent can the
system be changed to
improve efficiency as a
global business and how can
individual clubs adjust their
own internal structure to
improve their own profits.
The first thing that
must be look at to see how
academies can be adjusted
are the clubs, as they are the
operators of their own
academies. Clubs desire two
things: to be as successful
on the field as possible and
to make as much money as
possible. They develop
players to appease their first
Players from opposing teams shake hands before a match.
goal, to be successful on the
field, however the current
system falls short on trying
to turn as large of a profit as
possible.
The reason clubs do
not make as much as they
could is because they do not
use players developed in
clubs. When you watch a
top club in Europe playing,
you see clubs that consist of
a majority of players that do
not originate from the
country that withholds
the club. This is because
clubs prefer to spend
money on players that are
already developed and
can immediately make an
impact on the first team.
So, academy players
become useless assets
that clubs spent years Players from Paris San Germain after having won their
League Championship in 2016.
developing and investing
in, yet had no on field, or
capital output.
For many clubs, the
cost of operating an
academy becomes dead
weight and strays from the
focus of the club. For this
reason, major clubs consider
a nearly radical idea:
reducing the size of their
academy or even
removing their entire
academy system.
Yes, for many, this idea
is more radical than
anything Vladimir Lenin
could dreamt up, but
the concept has more
than just stable
validity.
Before discussing the
concept, remember to focus
on those two goals of clubs:
to maximize on field
performance and to
maximize profit, as both of
these are the foundation that
will be built upon.
Clubs want to be
stable both on-field and
financially through sound,
valuable assets. The most
valuable asset a club can
have is its players.
Players do not only
serve a role on the playing
field. They serve a crucial
role in bringing in money.
Clubs make money through
four main facets: game-day
funds, television deals,
sponsorship deals, and
merchandise sales. Players
serve as the largest
contributing factor in each of
the four categories for clubs.
Game-day revenue is
affected by the success of
the team during the season,
the appeal or star factor of a
player or of the opposing
team, and the circumstance
behind the match (i.e. more
fans will attend if it is a
championship match or if it
is a key match for a club to
gain 3 points in their
standings). Fans will attend
if any one of these things
occur, and as more fans to
go, clubs will begin to make
more. When the demand for
tickets increases, so do the
 per fan attending and more networks from different
in total. Also, when more nations to have the rights
fans attend, they spend broadcast games, however
more on beverages, food clubs are only given
and, other concessions at dividends of the total
the game, giving the club revenue from the network.
even more profits. The revenue is divided to
How would removing clubs based on success
the academy system change during the season, so
game day revenue? With the successful clubs gain larger
additional capital gained funds to re-invest into their
from removing the fees first team, whereas the
payed to each academy teams that finish with a lower
member, coach, and also standing will not gain as
payed for fields, clubs will be much, and as a result be at a
able to invest that back into complete, competitive
the first team. With that disadvantage compared to
additional capital, clubs can other clubs in the league.
look for higher level talent or Similar to how match
other ways to draw fan day revenue benefited clubs,
the additional revenue
from reducing or
removing the academy
system will give clubs
more capital to invest
into player assets,
which will increase the
performance of the
first team and draw in
a larger percentage of
television contract
Camp Nou filled with fans at an FC Barcelona match. given to the league.
Clubs also can
gain sponsorships
interest, causing an increase
directly through
in attendance and an
companies. Unlike in
increase in overall profit.
television, clubs can work
Clubs also gain
directly with non-soccer
significant profit from
entities and have on field,
television. Television
corporate, or merchandise
contracts are handed out to
sponsors that provide
clubs in a different manner
money to have their
than in American
business advertised.
professional sports. In
These contracts can be
European soccer, leagues
extremely lucrative for
still have contracts with
individual clubs because of
the mutual interest between
clubs and businesses.
Again, reducing the
size of the academy would
eliminate fees that frees
capital that would be
invested into players. Player
assets would boost the
competitive strength of the
first team and give the team
more success on the field,
drawing interest from
companies to sponsor clubs
and also drive up the value
of the sponsorships. All in
all, sponsorships can grow in
value when clubs reduce
their academy structure to
allow for greater capital
invested in players.
The final form of profit
for clubs is merchandise.
Merchandise is the biggest
form of sponsorship that has
additional financial benefits
for clubs. Merchandise
production companies will
sponsor a club to create
their equipment and gear,
along with the rights to sell
their uniforms. When the
companies sell merchandise,
clubs keep a percentage of it
Two Barcelona FC players boasting a sponsorship with
Qatar Airways.
 Clubs gain additional
benefits from reducing their
academy size through
merchandise. Through the
gained capital, merchandise
producers will want to
partner with clubs to sell
their gear, which will drive
up the price of the overall
sponsorship. Then,
consumers will be
interested by the increased
success of the club and buy
merchandise of that club,
receiving additional profits
as they succeed more and
more.
With all of the different
ways that clubs can gain
profit in mind, there are
ultimately two options that
clubs have for how they can
best use additional funds
from the reduction in size of
their academy in order to
increase on-field success.
The first way is through
using the additional funds to
purchase players from other
clubs that can immediately
be placed into the first team
to help the squad succeed.
The funds can be used to
gain players with chemistry
or that fit the manager’s
playing style. Either way,
clubs would benefit from
increasing the overall skill of
the role players on the first
team.
The other way clubs
can maximize their funds is
through the purchasing of
players that have a “star
factor” or are an elite level
player. The attraction of top
Luka Modric celebrates winning the Ballon D’or
award in 2019.
talent brings in lucrative
sponsorships and drives up
attendance with huge
success. Also, star players
can add to the on-field
success of clubs, however
the funds gained from the
reduction in size of the
academy would only be
enough to draw in one or
two star players.
Because of this,
investing in more
skilled role players
would provide more on
field success, as well
as more security that
the team will play well
together. This is due to
intangible factors of
“star” players, in that
they often disrupt team
West Ham United celebrates a goal in the Premier League.
chemistry that can
hamper the success of
the overall team.
Neither strategy for
investing is more successful
than the other, but both
would assuredly increase
both the profit and success
of any European soccer
club.
Now, one must
logically ask the question:
which clubs should reduce
the size of their academies
and which should not. The
answer has an almost
decisive answer.
Clubs that can
consistently finish in the top
6 of their league and are
valued at over one billion
pounds have the financial
and competitive leverage
needed to reduce the size of
their academy. With the
reduced size, they will then
act as previously stated and
invest into players that can
increase their first team to
increase revenue and on
field success. With
additional on field success,
their profits will snowball and
lead to more investment into
even better players and an
overall more talented squad.

Youth soccer players listening to their coaches
attentively.
For clubs that do not
meet that high cutoff, they
do not have the flexibility to
reduce their academy size,
however there is a large
source of revenue that has
been provided to them:
player development. With
top clubs not focusing on
development while still being
in high demand for players,
smaller clubs will be able to
increase the size and scope
of their academies to allow
for a greater number of
players to take part in their
academy.
With an increased
talent pool, these smaller
clubs will have a higher
percentage of finding a first
team caliber player. With
these players in their system,
they will be able to take
advantage, financially and on
field, of having these players.
First, clubs will be able
to utilize these skilled
prospects in their own first.
These young players are not
only skilled on the field, but
take particular interest from
fans and the media. This will
allow for more sponsorships,
merchandise, game day
revenues, and an
increase in television
deal revenue.
Then, these talented
prospects become
desirable for other clubs
and get bought by those
top tier clubs, where the
smaller club that
developed the player gains
an additional profit.
The impact of having
smaller clubs increase their
academies’ sizes would
decrease the on field
competitive advantage of
other clubs by distributing
funds in a way that all clubs
would make real net profits,
as well as all gain higher
level player assets. This
should intrigue fans and
consumers of soccer, as
more competition between
teams means a higher level
match and a higher level of
entertainment.
Ultimately, the landscape of
European soccer would
completely change if clubs
adjusted how they utilized
their academy system and
how it were structured. The
spread of revenue amongst
clubs would change and the
total value of the industry
would increase. It would be
a revolutionary step in the
history of soccer, the only
question is will it occur?