Huge congratulations to Dr Girish Ramchandani, Dr Daniel Plumley, and Dr Rob Wilson on having their article ‘The unintended consequence of Financial Fair Play: An examination of competitive balance across five European football leagues’ selected as a Highly Commended Paper in the 2020 Emerald Literati Awards.

Girish has kindly been speaking to us about the award recognition.

How did you feel on finding out about your success?

A sense of personal and professional pride. It is always encouraging, and something of an ego-boost, when your work is recognised and endorsed by the academic community. The paper was a joint effort with Dr Dan Plumley and Dr Rob Wilson from the Sheffield Business School, both of whom deserve an equal share in this success. This is the second occasion that I have won an Emerald Literati award for Highly Commended Paper in recent years, so hopefully this is the beginning of a long-term trend!

Dr Girish Ramchandani

Can you provide a brief summary of your paper, and your reasons for writing it?

In short, the paper examined competitive balance in top division football leagues in England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain before and after the introduction of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations by UEFA in 2011. It shows that competitive balance has been adversely affected for some of these leagues since the FFP regulations were implemented and questions whether the regulations have had unintended consequences. The paper builds on a body of collaborative research on competitive balance in elite and professional sport that I have been involved in for some time now.

Can you explain a little bit more about how the Literati award for Highly Commended Paper is awarded?

The editor and editorial advisory board of each journal (in this case Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal) is invited to select up to three ‘Highly Commended Paper’ awards from the previous year’s volume. There are several criteria that underpin the award, including the originality, significance and rigour of the research as well as its impact beyond academia.

What are the motivating factors that have led to your success?
Conducting and disseminating research is something that I personally find therapeutic – any success that comes my way from this process is always welcome!