Research On Competitiveness, Brand And Performance For Professional Football Clubs

Nowadays, professional football clubs have already practiced business management. Some European big clubs and leagues have built themselves as international famous brands and obtained excellent performance at the same time. By contrast, Chinese professional football clubs are still sluggish, and far away from to the target of self-sustaining. However, in recent years, Chinese Super League clubs have increased capital investments, arousing attentions from all sectors of society, which makes an unprecedented opportunity for Chinese football industry. Therefore, it is very significant to research the business strategy of Chinese professional football clubs. Presently, domestic researches on the football clubs are more in the perspective of sociology, rather than focusing on the economic theory of football clubs and the particularity of football industry, neglecting to research the relationships between variables.Firstly, this paper analyzes the theories related to enterprise competitiveness, enterprise brand and performance, it argues that enterprise brand is not only a part of enterprise competitiveness but also interactive with it. As a result, they jointly promotes the performance of consumers, clubs and the society. Secondly, this paper applies the above theory to economic theory of professional football clubs, arguing the particularity of football clubs in the following four apects:the effect of competitive intensity on clubs, regional differences, the effect of game quality on brand and social performance.Manchester United FC is one of the most-recognised and the most successful business football club. Therefore, thirdly, according to the economic theory and the particularity of professional football clubs, this paper contrastively analyzes the current situation of competitiveness, brand and performance between Chinese football clubs and MUFC, looking for the gap and arguing that main restrictions on Chinese football clubs are the short-term act, the soft budget constraint and the unfair competition. Finally, aiming at business weaknesses of Chinese football clubs, this paper puts forward policies and suggestions in the follow four aspects:establishing a clear investment mechanism, enhencing power sanely, enhencing tactics level and positive brand marketing, in order to provide the references for the business development direction of Chinese football clubs.