Winning solves everything - The relationship between financial and sports performance in English football

Abstract: This study provides a view of the correlation between clubs' financial performance and sports performance in English football's two top leagues: Premier League and Championship, during 1998-2019. The football industry has experienced immense growth and increased investment interest in recent years. The purpose of the study is to investigate if this development has affected the relationship between financial performance and sports performance, compared to previous empirical studies. We find a strong correlation between wage expenditure and sports performance for both leagues, in line with previous research. Moreover, in Premier League we find that profitability is positively correlated with sports performance, while wage margin is negatively correlated with sports performance. Our results further suggest that the player registration amortization margin is not significantly correlated with sports performance.