Comparative analysis of football efficiency among two small European countries: Portugal and Greece

Byline: Carlos Pestana Barros, John Douvis This paper estimates changes in total productivity, breaking this down into technically efficient change and technological change by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA) applied to a representative sample of football clubs operating in the two small European countries: Portugal and Greece. The aim of this procedure is to seek out those best practices that will lead to improved performance in the market. The authors rank the football clubs according to their change in total productivity for the period 1999-2000 to 2002-2003, concluding that some clubs experienced productivity growth while others experienced a decrease in productivity. The implications arising from the study are considered in terms of managerial policy.