Current Issue
Past Issues
About the Journal
Aims and Scope
Publisher
Editorial Board
Publishing Ethics
Indexing and Archiving
Copyright, Licensing and Access
For Authors
Submission Guidelines
Publication Fees
Peer-review Process
Editorial and Production Processes
Corrections and Retractions
Publishing Ethics
Copyright, Licensing and Access
Contact Us
RESEARCH PAPER
Beyond Resources? Efficiency and Technology as Explanations for the English Premier League’s Advantage over the Polish Ekstraklasa
1
Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Submission date: 2025-08-17
Final revision date: 2025-12-05
Acceptance date: 2025-12-09
Publication date: 2026-09-30
Corresponding author
GNPJE 2026;327(3):67-83
KEYWORDS
JEL CLASSIFICATION CODES
ABSTRACT
This study compares the technical efficiency and technological level of professional football clubs from the Polish Ekstraklasa and the English Premier League over the 2021/22–2023/24 seasons. Using a Slack-Based Model within a meta-frontier Data Envelopment Analysis framework, we assess two outputs – sporting performance (Elo ratings) and financial performance (total revenue) – relative to two inputs: player wage expenditure (or, in an alternative model, squad market value) and historical league ranking. The results indicate that both leagues exhibit similar average technical efficiency (≈ 0.8) and operate on the same technological frontier. Performance disparities between the two leagues are therefore attributable primarily to differences in resource endowments rather than technological or managerial inefficiency. Benchmarking analysis identifies Brentford as the most consistently efficient club, while Everton, Aston Villa, Śląsk Wrocław and Zagłębie Lubin display persistent inefficiency.
REFERENCES (65)
1.
Aigner D., Lovell C.A.K., Schmidt P. [1977], Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models, Journal of Econometrics, 6 (1): 21–37, https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4....
2.
Banker R.D., Charnes A., Cooper W. W. [1984], Some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis, Management Science, 30 (9): 1078–1092, https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.3....
3.
Barros C.P., Douvis J. [2009], Comparative analysis of football efficiency among two small European countries: Portugal and Greece, International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 6 (2): 183–199, https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSMM.....
4.
Barros C. P., Garcia-del-Barrio P., Leach S. [2009], Analysing the technical efficiency of the Spanish football league first division with a random frontier model, Applied Economics, 41 (25): 3239–3247, https://doi.org/10.1080/000368....
5.
Battese G. E., Prasada Rao D. S., O’Donnell C. J. [2004], A metafrontier production function for estimation of technical efficiencies and technology gaps for firms operating under different technologies, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 21 (1): 91–103, https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PROD....
6.
Battese G. E., Rao D. S.P. [2002], Technology gap, efficiency, and a stochastic metafrontier function, International Journal of Business and Economics, 1 (2): 87–93.
7.
Bolos V. J., Benitez R., Coll-Serrano V. [2025], Conventional and fuzzy data envelopment analysis with deaR, arXiv preprint, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv....
8.
Boto-García D., Varela-Quintana C., Muñiz A. [2023], Foreign players, team production, and technical efficiency: evidence from European soccer, Bulletin of Economic Research, 75 (4): 1209–1241, https://doi.org/10.1111/boer.1....
9.
Carmichael F., McHale I., Thomas D. [2011], Maintaining market position: team performance, revenue and wage expenditure in the English Premier League, Bulletin of Economic Research, 63 (4): 464–497, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467....
10.
Charnes A., Cooper W. W., Rhodes, E. [1978], Measuring the efficiency of decision making units, European Journal of Operational Research, 2 (6): 429–444, https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2....
11.
Chatziparaskevas P., Saprikis V., Antoniadis I. [2024], The impact of information systems and data science on management in modern professional football: moneyball theory and the development model of Brentford FC, AIP Conference Proceedings, 3220 (1): 50011, https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0237....
12.
Cifuentes-Faura J. [2022], Efficiency and transparency of Spanish football clubs: a non-parametric approach, Managerial and Decision Economics, 43 (6): 1850–1860, https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.34....
13.
Cook W. D., Seiford L. M. [2009], Data envelopment analysis [DEA] – Thirty years on, European Journal of Operational Research, 192 (1): 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor....
14.
Csató L. [2024], Club coefficients in the UEFA Champions League: time for shift to an Elo-based formula, International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 24 (2): 119–134, https://doi.org/10.1080/247486....
15.
Debreu G. [1951], The coefficient of resource utilisation, Econometrica, 19 (3): 273–292.
16.
Deloitte [2022], Piłkarska Liga Finansowa – sezon 2021/2022, https://www.slaskibiznes.pl/fi... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
17.
Deloitte [2025], Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance: European football market revenue increased 8% in 2023/24 to a record € 38 billion, Deloitte, https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
18.
Deprins D., Simar L., Tulkens L. H. [1984], Measuring labor inefficiency in post offices, in: Marchand M., Pestieau P., Tulkens H. (eds.), The Performance of Public Enterprises: Concepts and Measurements: 243–267, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam.
19.
Espitia-Escuer M., García-Cebrián L. I. [2008], Measuring the productivity of Spanish first division soccer teams, European Sport Management Quarterly, 8 (3): 229–246, https://doi.org/10.1080/161847....
20.
European Club Association [2012], Study on the transfer system in Europe, https://www.pwc.com/hu/hu/kiad... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
21.
Farrell M. J. [1957], The measurement of productive efficiency, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A [General], 120 (3): 253–281.
22.
Feng G., Jewell T. [2021], Productivity and efficiency at English football clubs: a random coefficient approach, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 68 (5): 571–604, https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.1....
23.
Financial Times [2024], Aston Villa billionaire owner calls for Premier League spending rules reform, https://www.ft.com/content/ffb... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
24.
Fischer K., Haucap J. [2021], Does crowd support drive the home advantage in professional football? Evidence from German ghost games during the COVID-19 pandemic, Journal of Sports Economics, 22 (8): 982–1008, https://doi.org/10.1177/152700....
25.
Frick B. [2009], Globalization and factor mobility: the impact of the Bosman ruling on player migration in professional soccer, Journal of Sports Economics, 10 (1): 88–106, https://doi.org/10.1177/152700....
26.
Frick B. [2011], Performance, salaries, and contract length: empirical evidence from German soccer, International Journal of Sport Finance, 6 (2): 87–118, https://doi.org/10.1177/155862....
27.
Frick B., Lee Y. H. [2011], Temporal variations in technical efficiency: evidence from German soccer, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 35 (1): 15–24, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11123....
28.
García-del-Barrio P., Szymanski S. [2009], Goal! Profit maximization versus win maximization in soccer, Review of Industrial Organization, 34 (1): 45–68, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11151....
29.
Gladden J. M., Funk D. C. [2002], Developing an understanding of brand associations in team sport: empirical evidence from consumers of professional sport, Journal of Sport Management, 16 (1): 54–81, https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.16....
30.
Gökgöz F., Yalçın E. [2022], A slack-based DEA analysis for the World Cup teams, Team Performance Management, 28 (1–2): 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1108/TPM-07....
31.
Grant Thornton [2023], Finansowa Ekstraklasa. Wyniki finansowe klubów piłkarskich PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasy w sezonie 2022/2023, https://grantthornton.pl/wp-co... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
32.
Grant Thornton [2024], Finansowa Ekstraklasa. Wyniki finansowe klubów piłkarskich PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasy w sezonie 2023/2024, https://grantthornton.pl/wp-co... RAPORT-01-10–2024.pdf (accessed on 11.06.2026).
33.
Guzmán I. [2006], Measuring efficiency and sustainable growth in Spanish football teams, European Sport Management Quarterly, 6 (3): 267–287, https://doi.org/10.1080/161847....
34.
Haas D., Kocher M. G., Sutter M. [2004], Measuring efficiency of German football teams by data envelopment analysis, Central European Journal of Operations Research, 12 (3): 251, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF0262....
35.
Jablonsky J. [2022], Individual and team efficiency: a case of the National Hockey League, Central European Journal of Operations Research, 30 (2): 479–494, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100....
36.
Jewell R. T. [2017], Technical efficiency with multi-output, heterogeneous production: a latent class, distance function model of English football, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11123....
37.
Kern M., Süssmuth B. [2005], Managerial efficiency in German top league soccer: an econometric analysis of club performances on and off the pitch, German Economic Review, 6 (4): 485–506, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468....
38.
Kesenne S. [2015], The Economic Theory of Professional Team Sports: An Analytical Treatment (2nd ed.). Edward Elgar Publish¬ing Cheltenham.
39.
Koopmans T. C. [1951], An analysis of production as an efficient combination of activities, in: Koopmans T. C. (ed.), Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation: 33–97, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.
40.
Kulikova L.I., Goshunova A.V. [2014], Efficiency measurement of professional football clubs: a non-parametric approach, Life Science Journal, 11 (11): 117–122.
41.
Meeusen W., Den Broeck J. van [1977], Efficiency estimation from Cobb-Douglas production functions with composed error, International Economic Review, 18 (2): 435–444, https://doi.org/10.2307/252575....
42.
Memmert D., Raabe D. [2023], Data analytics in football: positional data collection, modelling and analysis, Routledge, London.
43.
Miragaia D., Ferreira J., Carvalho A., Ratten V. [2019], Interactions between financial efficiency and sports performance: data for a sustainable entrepreneurial approach of European professional football clubs, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, 8 (1): 84–102, https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-D....
44.
Najtkowski B. [2024], „Organizacyjnie Stal Mielec”. Czy to nadal epitet obraźliwy?, TVP Sport, https://sport.tvp.pl/83770060/... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
45.
Narita K., Holmes B., McHale I. [2024], Evaluating immediate leadership contributions using Bayesian analysis: insights from professional football, SSRN Working Paper, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/p... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
46.
Nessel K., Havran Z., Máté T. [2022], Heterogeneity of budget constraints in Hungarian and Polish football, in: Storm R., Nielsen K., Havran Z. (eds.), Professional Team Sports and the Soft Budget Constraint: 103–129, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.
47.
O’Donnell C. J., Rao D. S.P., Battese G. E. [2008], Metafrontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios, Empirical Economics, 34 (2): 231–255, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181....
48.
Peeters T. [2018], Testing the Wisdom of Crowds in the field: Transfermarkt valuations and international soccer results, Inter¬national Journal of Forecasting, 34 (1): 17–29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfo....
49.
Peeters T., Szymanski S. [2014], Financial fair play in European football, Economic Policy, 29 (78): 343–390, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0....
50.
Pérez-González A., de Carlos P., Alén E. [2022], An analysis of the efficiency of football clubs in the Spanish first division through a two-stage relational network DEA model: a simulation study, Operational Research, 22 (3): 3089–3112, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351....
51.
Piórek S. [2023], Powiedzenie „organizacyjnie Stal Mielec” stało się przeżytkiem?, weszlo.com, https://weszlo.com/2023/01/02/... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
52.
Plumley D., Wilson R., Ramchandani G. [2017], Towards a model for measuring holistic performance of professional Football clubs, Soccer and Society, 18 (1): 16–29, https://doi.org/10.1080/146609....
53.
Ramchandani G., Plumley D., Davis A., Wilson R. [2023], A review of competitive balance in European football leagues before and after Financial Fair Play regulations, Sustainability, 15 (5), Article 4284, https://doi.org/10.3390/su1505....
54.
Rohde M., Breuer C. [2018], Competing by investments or efficiency? Exploring financial and sporting efficiency of club owner¬ship structures in European football, Sport Management Review, 21 (5): 563–581, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.....
55.
Rossi G., Goossens D., Di Tanna G. L., Addesa F. [2019], Football team performance efficiency and effectiveness in a corruptive context: the Calciopoli case, European Sport Management Quarterly, 19 (5): 583–604, https://doi.org/10.1080/161847....
56.
Scully G. W. [1974], Pay and performance in major league baseball, The American Economic Review, 64 (6): 915–930.
57.
Soares de Mello J.C.C.B., Angulo Meza L., Lacerda F. G. [2012], A dea model with a non discritionary variable for olympic evalu¬ation, Pesquisa Operacional, 32 (1): 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0101-....
58.
Stefani R., Pollard R. [2007], Football rating systems for top-level competition: a critical survey, Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 3 (3), https://doi.org/10.2202/1559-0....
59.
Terrien M., Scelles N., Morrow S., Maltese L., Durand C. [2017], The win/profit maximisation debate: strategic adaptation as the answer?, Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 7 (2): 121–140, https://doi.org/10.1108/SBM-10....
60.
Tone K. [2001], A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis, European Journal of Operational Research, 130 (3): 498–509, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-....
61.
Transfermarkt [n.d.], Premier League, https://www.transfermarkt.co.u... (accessed on 14.08.2025).
62.
UEFA [2025], UEFA five-year association coefficient ranking, https://www.uefa.com/nationala... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
63.
Wyszyński A. [2016], Efficiency of football clubs in Poland, Olsztyn Economic Journal, 11 (1): 59–72, http://www.uwm.edu.pl/wne/pods... (accessed on 11.06.2026).
64.
Wyszyński A. [2017], Sytuacja finansowa klubów Ekstraklasy w ujęciu metody DEA, Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, 288 (2): 69–99, https://doi.org/10.33119/GN/10....
65.
Wyszyński A. [2021], Form of ownership and economic and sports results of football clubs in Poland, Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 21: 1142–1149, https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2....
Share
RELATED ARTICLE
| eISSN: | 2300-5238 |
© 2006-2026 Journal hosting platform by Bentus
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
