The main aim of this thesis is to verify whether the economic cycles have an impact on the economic situation of professional football clubs in the United Kingdom. The reference period are the years 2006 to 2014, which include the recent economic crisis. In the theoretical part, sports club are defined as a firm in accordance with behavioral theory which was selected as the most suitable. Analyzed are the specifics of functioning of sports clubs, such as the method of determining the club's goals. These are among sports clubs, unlike conventional businesses, based on the principle of utility maximization. Furthermore, sporting markets are described, and considered a sports cartel. Described are also different ways of financing of sports clubs, and as the most important nowadays are chosen: gate receipts, broadcasting revenues and sponsorship. As the part of the thesis, the substantial positive effects of analyzed Premier League on the British society is described. These include big tax revenues for the government of United Kingdom. In the 2013, those tax revenues reached 1.3 billion pounds. The practical part of the thesis characterizes Premier League, and subsequently also the selected football clubs, and especially their economic development in the reference period. The data obtained are then coupled with the economic development of United Kingdom. Data reveal that neither club revenues, nor expenses were affected by the economic crisis. Similarly, there was not registered any effect of the crisis on the wages of the clubs employees, nor on the number of staff employed by the clubs.

L’objet de cette thèse est d’étudier les dispositifs de protection de l’emploi dans l’entreprise en difficulté. Elle met en exergue la difficile articulation entre les mécanismes du droit du travail et ceux du droit commercial, qui semble souvent mener à l’effacement du premier devant les impératifs du second. Le titre I est ainsi consacré à l’examen des prérogatives confiées aux représentants des salariés afin de défendre leur intérêt collectif, l’emploi, lorsque la situation de l’entreprise est compromise. L’accent est particulièrement mis sur l’absence de moyens d’action efficaces, plaçant les salariés dans le rôle de spectateurs, et non d’acteurs, du processus décisionnel relatif à la détermination du sort de l’entreprise. Le titre II s’intéresse, quant à lui, à la place octroyée à l’emploi au regard des objectifs que la loi a attribué au droit des entreprises en difficulté et qui doivent être poursuivis par le juge. Il constate que l’impératif de maintien de l’emploi s’efface devant l’objectif prioritaire que constitue la sauvegarde de l’activité économique. Ainsi, en dépit des réformes successives ayant touché le droit des entreprises en difficulté, la prise en considération de l’emploi demeure timide. L’implication apparente des salariés masque leur mise à distance des principales décisions relatives à la détermination du sort de l’entreprise. L’emploi, en particulier lorsqu’il est soumis à l’instrumentalisation des procédures collectives par des groupes désireux de se débarrasser, à moindre coût, de leurs filiales, est envisagé avant tout comme une variable ajustable de l’entreprise en difficulté. / The object of this thesis is to study the mechanisms of employment protection of firms in crisis. It highlights the difficult articulation between the mechanisms of the labor law and those of the commercial law, which often seems to lead to the disappearance of the first in front of the imperatives of the second. Title I is dedicated to the examination of the resources assigned to the staff representatives to defend their collective interest, employment, when the situation of the company is compromised. The emphasis is particularly put on the absence of effective means of action, which places the employees in a spectators’ role, instead of an actors’ role, in the decision-making concerning the determination of the future of the company. Title II is interested in the place granted to the employment with regards to the objectives that law attribute to the crisis firms law and which must be pursued by the judge. He notices that the imperative of preservation of employment disappear in front of the priority objective constituted by the protection of the economic activity. So, in spite of the successive reforms having affected the commercial law, the consideration of employment remains shy. The visible implication of the employees masks their removal from the main decisions relative to the determination of the future of the company. Employment, in particular when it’s subject to the instrumentalization of the collective procedures by groups avid to get rid, at a lower cost, of their subsidiaries, is above all considered as an adjustable parameter of the firm in crisis.