A Study On The Evaluation Of The Financial Risks Of Listed Companies Of World Professional Football Clubs

As China’s professional sports reform continues to deepen,the issue of financial health and operation level of professional clubs begins to enter people’s view,and club financial risk assessment gradually receives wide attention.Especially in these years,China’s deepening supply-side reform has been implemented,the market environment is becoming increasingly complex,and the survival and development of professional clubs are facing many challenges,while the current financial imbalance of clubs is becoming more and more serious,and the importance of financial early warning is becoming increasingly prominent.In Europe,the soccer industry’s governing bodies have long focused on the financial control of clubs,such as the Financial Fair Play Regulation adopted by UEFA in 2013,which requires clubs to have a continuous statement in their annual financial statements and going concern statements.In contrast to the domestic context,financial distress studies have been the focus of club financial research,and the development and application of predictive financial distress models have become a major direction in the field,which help to assess the current state of financial operations and the risks they face.For a long time,the professional soccer ecology in China has been experiencing break-even losses caused by losses,thus necessitating the development of a financial risk assessment model.However,due to the literature,only a small amount of literature has been created to create an assessment model that reflects the specific attributes of the soccer industry.Therefore,this study constructs a comprehensive financial risk assessment model applicable to modern professional soccer clubs with the help of global listed soccer clubs as the analysis sample,and selects reasonable financial indicators from multiple perspectives.The purpose is to identify and classify the influencing factors of financial risks of listed soccer clubs,explore the leading factors of financial crises of professional soccer clubs,and outline the overall characteristics of financial operations of modern professional soccer clubs,which is of great practical significance for examining the gap between the financial management of foreign domestic and professional clubs,learning from the experience of high-level foreign club operations,and improving the overall governance of Chinese clubs.The research process is based on a preliminary investigation and search of the definition and triggering factors of financial risks of professional soccer clubs through literature and expert interviews.Global listed soccer clubs were selected as the sample for analysis,and 17 financial indicators were selected from five aspects: profitability,cash capacity,solvency,operating capacity and growth capacity to build a financial risk evaluation index system for soccer clubs.Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to identify and classify the components of financial risks of listed soccer clubs,and the listed soccer clubs was established.The objectives were to explore the characteristics of the overall financial operation of listed football clubs,to determine the dominant factors of financial crises in clubs and to explore the inspiration of foreign clubs’ financial operation on the development of professional soccer clubs in China.The study concludes that:(1)the study of financial risk assessment and regulation of professional soccer clubs is significant,and the root causes of financial crises are divided into external and internal factors;(2)the overall financial risk of listed clubs worldwide is high,with financial characteristics such as low net profit,high gearing ratio and low listing financing rate,which also warns that professional soccer clubs should focus on player This also warns that professional football clubs should pay attention to the regular evaluation of players’ value and the optimization of intangible assets at the level of their own operation,and puts forward preventive suggestions for league managers such as formulating more specialized league operation policies and optimizing club risk evaluation tools;(3)the evaluation model established in this study is highly feasible and accurate,and its accurate analysis shows that Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club has a significant downward trend in its financial operation in the past six seasons,i.e.,it is facing a high financial risk and the real crisis of bankruptcy and dissolution,which is highly related to the later delisting of Evergrande FC;(4)the study advances the theoretical development of financial risk assessment of professional sports organizations.Admittedly,the initial purpose of the reform of professional soccer in China at this stage is not to pursue economics,but financial health is the basis for the sustainable development of professional clubs and the guarantee of fairness in professional leagues.Further in-depth research is meaningful.