Corporate Social Responsibility in Professional Football

In this book, we first give an overview of the evolution and current understanding ofCorporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) as well as its practical and theoretical progress in professional
sports.

In chapter 2, we exemplify the current development of CSR in professional football by analyzing the CSR projects ofUEFA and the NFL. From a normative view, we explain that CSR is essential in football organizations because of their mass media distribution, their commercial status, and growing environmental concems. From a pragmatic view, we highlight the business benefits that accrue to football organization that engage in CSR. Following this reasoning, we compare the current CSR projects of the nonprofit UEF A and the commercial NFL with respect to attributes, expenditures, and evaluation of projects' impacts and provide potential explanations for the projects' similarities and differences.

In chapter 3, we contribute to the growing literature on sports philanthropy, a central element of CSR activities in the sport sector, by determining the extent to which professional sports organizations such as UEF A and the NFL as well as their teams and players assume social responsibility by establishing a foundation and their respective motives for doing so.

In chapter 4, we create CSR reporting guidelines for the professional football sector. Voluntary CSR reporting is now common in traditional industrial enterprises and is even becoming increasingly apparent in service industries and non-govemmental organizations (NGOs) that aim to provide stakeholders with transparent and comparable information on their economic, environmental, and social efforts. The intemationally recognized standard for CSR reporting is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRl). It provides a framework of standard disclosures applicable to all businesses as well as sector supplements that provide sector-specific guidelines for a growing number of different industries. Such a sector supplement is not yet available for the professional football industry, although nearly all professional clubs are involved in social and environmental activities to some extent. This chapter aims to fill this gap by creating a professional football sector supplement on the basis ofthe existing GRl Guidelines and sector supplements, together with the formulation ofnew football-specific indicators.

Finally, in chapter 5, we summarize the results ofthe thesis and suggests future research topics
regarding to CSR in professional football.