Factor analysis of the market value of high-performance players for three major European association football leagues

ABSTRACT

Research question: What is the theoretical construct for the market value of association football players for the three major European football leagues?

Research methods: Factor analysis was used for a set of variables determined by a systematic literature review. Cluster analysis was applied to validate the factors by League. Discriminant analysis was employed to revalidated cluster analysis.

Results and findings: Eight factor clusters were found: four for the Premier League; two for the Bundesliga; and two for the Serie A. Score percentages appropriately classified in the eight factors were between 75.00% and 100%, and the overall accuracy was between 94.43% and 100%. For the Premier League, the validated factors accounted for 53% of the total variance, for Bundesliga the 28%, and for the Serie A the 26%.

Implications: This has practical consequences in business because it enables analysis of the player market value for these leagues.

KEYWORDS:

• Factor analysis
• cluster analysis
• discriminant analysis
• football player market value construct
• European association football leagues

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.