García-del-Barrio, PedroRossi, Giambattista2020-08-032020-08-032020Garcia-del-Barrio, P., & Rossi, G. (2020). How the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations affect football clubs’ priorities and leagues’ competitive balance?. European Journal of Government and Economics, 9(2), 119-142. https://doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2020.9.2.58422254-7088http://hdl.handle.net/2183/26072[Abstract] Institutional and legal reforms applied in the context of sports competitions often provoke structural changes that can be empirically investigated. Using a data set of 560 observations (20 teams per season, from 2009/10 to 2015/16, of teams playing in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1), this paper examines how the UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations may have altered the football clubs’ decisions concerning their sport and financial priorities. Moreover, based on a simple theoretical description, the paper shows that the increasing financial stability promoted by the FFP rules might actually imply – as an undesired side effect – a declined competitive balance affecting the European football leagues. Finally, the paper discusses some policy issues and recommendations.engAtribución-NoComercial 4.0 Españahttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es/Institutional regulationsProfessional footballFinancial fair playCompetitive balanceWage-to-revenue ratiosjournal articleopen access