Coaching and the coaching process are characterised by a number of complex interactions between the coach, the player and the club environment. Yet understanding of the coaching process as a complex, holistic process remains limited. There are 'gaps' in our existing knowledge, particularly in comprehending the dynamic relationship between the coach, player and club environment, and in understanding the implications of these interactions for practice and the coaching process. This research sought to examine and represent the complexity of the coach-player-club environment interface, and to understand some of the ways that they interact to construct and impinge upon the coaching process. The research was conducted on the premise that a sound understanding of the complexity of the coaching process drawing upon empirical research, rather than idealistic 'models', can inform the future development of coaching practice and coach education. Within the framework of ethnography, the research took place over one season and used participant observation, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews and group interviews in one Football Association, Premier League Academy. The aim was to explore the coaching process and practical coaching context, as played out in the day-to-day experiences of coaches and youth team players. In addition to the main case-study club, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five coaches working with youth teams at other clubs. The research used concepts from grounded theory and also the work of Pierre Bourdieu to analyse and present the data. In its findings, the study depicts a coaching process that is interdependent and interrelated and highlights complexity in each of the following elements: the club, sessions and games, players and coaches, relationships, and 'attitude'. The dynamism within and between each of these elements is illustrated in the ways that each can facilitate, constrain or even prevent 'effective' practice and the operation of the coaching process. Moreover, the research demonstrates the powerful nature of tradition and culture, highlighting their pervasive influence upon the coaching process and coaching practice. Life at the case study club was characterised by authoritarianism and pressure, and was relentlessly directed towards winning. This backdrop strongly influenced the relationship between coaches and players, and impacted upon the coaching process. Importantly, the research presents evidence to suggest that coach education may be a relatively 'low impact' endeavour in comparison to the coaches' other experiences which are presented as a significant force shaping both coaches' development and practice. To harness this experience and develop coach education, this research suggests that the governing body could consider embracing mentoring as part of coach education and, as part of this, coaches should be encouraged to engage in critical reflection in order to understand how cultural and other forces shape their practice. However, for mentoring to succeed, it must be grounded in a thorough understanding of the culture of football clubs, and the ways coaches draw upon their life experiences in football to direct their own practice and judge the practices and 'worth' of others. Importantly, this research begins to answer some of the criticisms levelled at previous research by examining interaction and complexity within the coaching process in-situ. It highlights the problematic, interrelated and interdependent nature of relationships that construct and influence the coaching process and coaching practice. Importantly, it highlights the important and under-researched link between coaching practice, the coaching process and the immediate and wider social context of football.

Title: Evaluating of efficiency of Football Clubs in Premier League by Data Envelopment Analysis. Goals: The aim of the thesis is to identify the effectiveness of football clubs in the Premier League in the season 2016/2017. In the post optimization analysis evaluate, which observed clubs have been effective in transforming inputs into outputs, and which clubs have some deficiencies in this transformation. Methods: In the thesis for efficiency research, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) data analysis method is used to evaluate the effectiveness of individual clubs in the Premier League. DEA determines which units are effective and what are the deviations from the effective frontier for the units that are inefficient. The measurements are made by an input- oriented CCR model and a BCC model. The CCR model assumes constant returns to scale and BCC considers variable returns to scale. Results: The result section identifies the productive efficiency of individual football clubs in the Premier League in the season 2016/2017. The effective frontier reached a total of 7 clubs in both CCR and BCC models. The average efficiency in the CCR model is 87 %. In the BCC model, the average efficiency is 91 %. As a result, the Premier League as a competition is highly efficient. Key words: data envelopment...

Submitted by Eric Matheus Rocha Lima null (ericmrl@hotmail.com) on 2018-02-21T17:02:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VERSÃO FINAL.pdf: 5609641 bytes, checksum: 72dfd18e8a5028d8a60715c8ed62d469 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Aparecida Puerta null (dripuerta@rc.unesp.br) on 2018-02-22T13:38:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_emr_me_rcla.pdf: 4998314 bytes, checksum: 7ae5ea273e4af8943126c6d92c688397 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-22T13:38:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_emr_me_rcla.pdf: 4998314 bytes, checksum: 7ae5ea273e4af8943126c6d92c688397 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Além de ser uma modalidade esportiva que envolve relações de cooperação e oposição, o futebol também é um ambiente de rica disponibilidade e aplicação de informações acerca do que ocorre nas partidas. Ao encontro disso, o presente trabalho centra inquietações em busca do entendimento das ocorrências do jogo de futebol e da relação destas com o resultado final das partidas. Dessa forma, o objetivo do estudo consiste em apontar indicadores e variáveis que apresentam maior influência nos resultados das partidas de futebol. A relevância do estudo pauta-se no fato de permitir a análise de vários indicadores (posse de bola, passes, finalizações, entre outros) da modalidade ao mesmo tempo, permitindo a identificação de alternativas que aumentem as chances de êxito. O estudo se caracteriza como uma pesquisa quantitativa, de caráter descritivo. Para atingir os objetivos, será utilizada como amostra os dados estatísticos referentes às 380 partidas da temporada 2015/2016 da Premier League, o campeonato Inglês, dados estes coletados junto ao website do jornal Inglês “Daily Mail”. Também foram coletados dados referentes aos valores de mercado dos jogadores das equipes, obtidos no website do “Transfermarkt”, especializado em determinação financeira de elencos. Como ferramentas auxiliares para o processo de análise dos dados coletados serão utilizados alguns recursos computacionais, mais especificamente, a planilha eletrônica e o aplicativo Weka, um programa que implementa vários algoritmos da área de mineração de dados. Como resultados iniciais das análises, os números mostram que melhor conversão do total de finalizações em gols leva a uma chance superior de vitórias à conversão das finalizações certas em gols. Ao comparar apenas o total de finalizações e o total de finalizações certas, acertar mais a meta demonstrou maior probabilidade de êxito. Ter mais posse de bola e/ou realizar/acertar mais passes não aumenta a possibilidade de vitórias, a não ser que estes indicadores estejam relacionados a uma superioridade nas finalizações certas, mesmo que não levem ao gol. No entanto, estas mesmas finalizações certas mostram-se mais benéficas que a posse de bola e/ou os passes, para vencer as partidas. Além disso, ter maior percentual de passes longos e finalizar mais vezes na meta apresentou 71% de chances de triunfo. Deve-se observar também que realizar mais cruzamentos e escanteios não se traduz em grande probabilidade de vitórias. Por fim, apresentar elevado aproveitamento de gols nas finalizações certas, mesmo recebendo mais cartões amarelos, demonstrou 70% de probabilidade de vitórias. Esta dissertação oferece uma inovação metodológica que permite a identificação de alternativas aplicáveis para aumentar as chances de vitória, acrescenta conhecimento ao entendimento de que não há uma única fórmula para o sucesso e pode auxiliar na atuação dos treinadores de futebol por subsidiar alternativas que melhor se ajustem aos recursos disponíveis. / Besides being a sport that involves cooperation and opposition relations, football is also an environment of rich informations availability and application about what occurs in the matches. To that, the present work focuses concerns looking for the understanding of the games occurrences and their relation with the final match results. In this way, the study’s aim consists in pointing indicators and variables that show higher influence on football matches results’ occurrence. The relevance of the study is based on allowing the analysis of many indicators (ball possession, passes, shots, among others) of the sport at the same time, allowing the alternatives’ identification to increase chances of success. The study is characterized as a quantitative research, of described character. To reach the aim proposed, will be used as the sample the statistic data from the total of 380 Premier League, (English Football League) matches in the season 2015/2016, data obtained through accesses to Daily Mail’s website (english periodic). The data related to the teams’ market value were collected in the Transfermarkt’ website, specialized in squads financial determination. As auxiliary instruments for the collected data analysis’ process, some computational resources will be used, specifically, a spreadsheet and the Weka app, a program that implements many algorithms of data mining area. As initial analysis’ results, numbers show that better conversion of the total shots in goals takes to a higher chance of winning in relation to a better conversion of shots on target in goals. Comparing only total shots and total shots on target, reach the target with more frequency has shown higher likelihood of success. Having more ball possession and/or making more accuracy passes do not increase victory’s possibility, unless those indicators are related to shots on goal superiority, even if they do not take the team to score a goal. However, those shots on target showed themselves as more beneficial than ball possession and/or passes in order to win the matches. Besides, having higher percentage of long passes and shooting on target more times presented 71% triumph chances. It also must be observed that making more crosses and corners do not bring big victories likelihood. Ultimately, showing high exploitation of goals in shots on target, even receiving more yellow cards, demonstrated 70% victories likelihood. This dissertation offers a methodological innovation that allows the identification of useful alternatives to increase winning chances, adds knowledge to the understanding that there is not a unique formula to have success and can help on football coach’s actions for subsidizing possibilities that better fit to the available resources.

Using data from the 2006 – 2013 English Premier League (EPL) seasons, this paper finds evidence that the Home Grown policy does not provide a differential effect. As a consequence of the ruling, however, EPL clubs have generally acquired more English players. While English players are detrimental to a club’s ability to achieve a top 4 finish in the pre-policy period, this paper finds that English players positively influence top clubs in the post-policy period. More specifically, a successful club in the pre-policy period is 18% more likely to achieve a top 4 finish in the post-policy period by acquiring more English players in response to the Home Grown ruling. Furthermore, these top clubs are able to maintain their pre-policy competitiveness by outspending their counterparts to acquire the most talented Englishmen. As such, this paper also finds that increasing club transfer expenditures favors EPL club success in the post-policy period.

Sedan 2012 har UEFA implementerat ett nytt regelverk vid namn Financial Fair Play, där klubblag måste följa denna reglering för att kunna delta i UEFA:s två största turneringar (Champions League och UEFA Europa League). Den större vikten av regleringen har lagts på en regel vid namn break-even rule som innebär att de relevanta kostnaderna inte får överstiga de relevanta intäkterna. Syftet med denna reglering är att förbättra den ekonomiska ställningen inom Europeisk fotboll, samt förbättra konkurrensbalansen i de olika ligorna.    Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilken ekonomisk effekt regleringen haft på fotbollsklubbar i den engelska högstaligan. Vidare är syftet att granska hur klubbarna förhållt sig till Financial fair play och hur klubbarna klarat implementeringen, detta för att se om klubbarna har stärkt deras position i hierarkin och hur konkurrensbalansen i ligan har påverkats. En analys av ekonomiska rapporter har genomförts för de klubblag som deltagit i den Engelska Premier League säsongerna 2005/2006-2014/2015. Den totala populationen för studien blev 36 lag. En totalundersökning har gjorts där studien använt sig av beräkningar som Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, C5 Ratio och Pearsons korrelationskoefficient. Studien har utgått ifrån regleringsteorin public interest theory, den nyinstitutionella teorin med fokus på den tvingande isomorfismen samt contest theory model för att kunna ge svar på studiens frågeställning. Det kan konstateras att lagen i Premier League förbättrat deras ekonomiska ställning efter att regleringen sattes i kraft. Break-even kravet har tvingat lag att ta mer hänsyn till ekonomin, detta kan ha i kombination med andra faktorer resulterat i en bättre ekonomisk utveckling. Vidare kan det konstateras att konkurrensbalansen har förbättrats överlag mellan lagen men samtidigt har den försämrats mellan topp fem och resterande, det vill säga konkurrensbalansen mellan lagen under topp fem har förbättrats. Det går dock inte att fastställa om den ekonomiska utvecklingen samt konkurrensbalansen förändring beror just på FFP.

Title: Efficiency of football clubs in Premier League Objectives: The aim of this diploma thesis is to investigate the technical efficiency of Premier League clubs in the 2015/2016 season using a Data Envelopment Analysis approach. Determine which clubs worked efficiently and identify weaknesses of individual teams. Methods: The efficiency of each Premier League club is analysed by Data envelopment analysis (DEA). The efficiency is computed for input oriented CCR model (constant returns to scale) and BCC model (variable returns to scale). Results: The technical efficiency of each club in the 2015/2016 Premier League season is evaluated in the practical part of this thesis, with eight clubs achieving maximum efficiency for both CCR and BCC models. That indicates that the competition as a whole is highly effective. Keywords: Premier League, technical efficiency data envelopment analysis, CCR, BCC

Hra Fantasy Premier League poskytuje miliónom hráčov po celom svete možnosť stať sa na chvíľu manažérom svojho vlastného klubu. Výsledky a bodové ohodnotenie v hre závisia na správnom predvídaní, ako sa budú hráči chovať v skutočných futbalových zápasoch. Ak by pri tomto rozhodovaní pomáhal software na predikciu a analýzu budúcich výkonov hráčov, výsledky v hre sa môžu rapídne zlepšiť. Táto diplomová práca sa zaoberá návrhom a implementáciou predikčného modelu, ktorý využíva neurónové siete na predikcie časových radov počas celej sezóny v hre. Boli použité metódy na spracovanie dát o hráčoch a kluboch za posledné 4 sezóny. Výkonnosť a presnosť predikčných metód boli testované na dátach z poslednej sezóny Premier League a predikcie algoritmu sa vo väčšine prípadov blížili realite. Ak by sa užívateľ držal predikčného modelu v hre stopercentne, získal by väčší počet bodov ako bežný hráč, ktorý žiadny predikčný model nepoužíva.

The premise of this report is to delve into sports betting and whether favourable opportunities can be found, more specifically focusing on over and under odds for number of goals scored in football games of the Premier League. Using historical data from football matches several models are developed, the characteristics of goals warranting the use of probability based Poisson and Negative Binomial models, as well as Bayesian Poisson regression for goal predictions. Once these models were developed odds was found and compared to bookmakers, the results indicated that all models, to varying degrees, find favourable opportunities and profitable betting strategies can be identified. This suggests that bookmakers do not always price betting products according to their true probabilities likely due to book balancing and informational asymmetries. Furthermore it indicates that there is a presence of inefficiencies in the sports betting market. / Den här rapporten kommer djupdyka i betting och huruvida gynnsamma möjligheter kan hittas. Mer specifikt kommer ett fokus ligga på över/under odds för antalet mål i fotbollsmatcher i engelska Premier League. Genom att använda historisk data från fotbollsmatcher utvecklas flera olika statistiska modeller för att förutspå antalet mål i fotbollsmatcher. Skattning av Poisson och Negativ Binomial fördelningar samt utvecklandet av en Bayesiansk Poisson regressionsmodell motiveras av egenskaperna hos antalet mål i fotbollsmatcher. Med dessa modeller, beräknas odds för flera framtida matcher inom Premier League och dessa jämfördes med odds som ges av bettingbolag. Resultaten indikerar att alla modeller kan, i olika stor utsträckning, hitta gynnsamma möjligheter och lönsamma betting strategier kan identifieras. Detta tyder på att bettingbolag inte alltid sätter sina odds enbart baserat på den faktiska sannolikheten, vilket troligtvis beror på att bolagen balanserar sina böcker samt informationsasymmetrier. Dessutom indikerar resultatet på att det finns faktorer på bettingmarknaden som gör marknaden ineffektiv.

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.

Uppsatsen ämnar att försöka förklara hur olika variabler angående matchbilden i en fotbollsmatch påverkar slutresultatet. Dessa variabler är uppdelade i prestationsvariabler och kvalitétsvariabler. Prestationsvariablerna är baserade på prestationsindikatorer inspirerat av Hughes och Bartlett (2002). Kvalitétsvariablerna förklarar hur bra de olika lagen är. Som verktyg för att uppnå syftet används olika klassificeringsmodeller utifrån både prestationsvariablerna och kvalitétsvariablerna. Först undersöktes vilka prestationsindikatorer som var viktigast. Den bästa modellen klassificerade cirka 60 % rätt och rensningar och skott på mål var de viktigaste prestationsvariablerna. Sedan undersöktes vilka prediktionsvariabler som var bäst. Den bästa modellen klassificerade rätt slutresultat cirka 88 % av matcherna. Utifrån vad författarna ansågs vara de viktigaste prediktionsvariablerna skapades en prediktionsmodell med färre variabler. Denna lyckades klassificera rätt cirka 86 % av matcherna. Prediktionsmodellen var konstruerad med spelarbetyg, odds på oavgjort och domare.