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Introduction
The relationship between ownership structure and business performance has been examined extensively in corporate finance literature. Ownership structure is considered an important tool for corporate governance to resolve any conflict of interests between shareholders and managers ([19] Hu and Izumida, 2008). Scholarly research identifies broadly two forms of corporate governance ([6] Coffee, 2005, p. 200) - "a concentrated ownership system" and "a dispersed ownership system". The former suggests a stronger monitoring power from individual investors and large-block shareholders (holding at least 5 per cent of equity ownership within the firm) over a firm's managerial decisions, because of the incentives from these owners to safeguard their investment proactively. By contrast, firms operating under a dispersed ownership system are indicative of weaker governance power because investors with less ownership interests have little incentive to pay attention to the strategic decisions of the firm and thus, are less motivated to closely monitor and discipline top executive behaviours ([13] FT Lexicon, 2012). However, evidence from a growing body of literature has been rather contradictory, leading to no distinct conclusions one way or another on the impact of ownership structure on the performance of the firm. Some studies have found a significant positive link between ownership and performance, but others reveal a negative or neutral one using the same performance measures or outcomes (see [14] Gadhoum et al. , 2005). To our knowledge, this type of analysis has not been applied to the sport industry, specifically in relation to professional football clubs, where business objectives include financial considerations as well as success "on the pitch". It is this gap in the extant literature that this paper attempts to address using the English Premier League (EPL) as the field of study. The relationship between the two performance dimensions of EPL clubs (i.e. financial and sporting results) under different forms of ownership is also examined. Moreover, the implications of UEFA's imminent implementation of its Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations are considered.
During the last five years the EPL has established itself as the largest and most profitable league in world football. Recent figures available from [9] Deloitte (2011) reveal that the EPL's revenue reached almost [euro]2.5 bn in 2009/2010, which was [euro]800 m more than its closest competitor in Europe, the...