Hiring as an Investment Decision: The Recruitment Policies of the Professional Football Club

The total neglect of human assets as opposed to physical assets is one of the anomalies of financial accounting. Perhaps nowhere is this anomaly greater than in the instance of the professional football club, because here the net worth of the human resources, principally the playing staff, helps determine playing success and perhaps ultimately financial success. Moreover, such is the nature of the employment contract in professional football, these human resources may be transferred between clubs, and the corresponding financial transaction is manifest in what might be termed autonomous and induced effects in the financial accounts of the buying and selling club respectively.