The impact of Slavia Praha’s takeover on Czech football

Abstract

Foreign ownership in European football has been rapidly increasing especially in the last two decades. Although the main interest for the foreign investors are the teams of major leagues such as English Premier League, Spanish La Liga or Italian Serie A, there are some occasional surprises. One of the surprises is the oldest football team in Czech football, SK Slavia Praha This study investigates the impact of Slavia’s takeover on Czech First Division. First, a stochastic frontier analysis is conducted and efficiency scores are estimated. The results indicate that Slavia’s athletic efficiency has improved significantly after the takeover. Later, the transfer activity in the league is investigated and concluded that it has increased greatly thanks to Slavia’s additional funds allocated to transfers. Finally, the overall competitive balance in the league improved after the takeover despite Slavia’s dominance in the league after the takeover. © 2021 Masaryk University. All rights reserved.