Governance Models and Sustainability in Professional Sports A Comparative Analysis of UEFA and the NBA

This thesis provides a comparative analysis of two different governance models in professional sports: UEFA’s federated system and the NBA’s centralized league structure. The objective of this work is to examine how institutional and regulatory frameworks influence financial sustainability, competitive balance and the long-term stability of sports leagues. The research is structured into six chapters. After the introduction and a theoretical framework that reviews literature on governance, the core part of the thesis focuses on two case studies. The first concerns UEFA, examining its multi-level organization, the evolution of regulatory tools such as Financial Fair Play and its transition to the Financial Sustainability Regulations, as well as revenue redistribution mechanisms. This analysis highlights persistent inequalities among clubs, UEFA’s structural dependence on competitions such as the Champions League and the European Championship and the governance challenges that led to the attempt to create the European Super League in 2021. The NBA case focuses on its closed franchise system, the Board of Governors and the Commissioner’s strong central role, analyzing tools such as the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the salary cap, the luxury tax and revenue sharing, thanks to which the league achieves financial stability and maintains balance among teams. The comparative analysis reveals a paradox: UEFA, though formally open and merit-based, has produced oligopolistic outcomes dominated by a small group of wealthy clubs, while the NBA, despite being closed, has fostered greater competitive balance through enforceable redistributive mechanisms. Empirical evidence confirms this contrast: since 2010, only seven clubs have managed to win the UEFA Champions League, whereas ten different franchises have secured the NBA title over the same period, although the overall pool of participating teams in these competitions has been markedly disproportionate. The SWOT analysis further demonstrates that UEFA benefits from institutional legitimacy and historical prestige but faces structural weaknesses linked to its dependence on elite clubs, while the NBA combines financial stability and regulatory efficiency with vulnerabilities primarily tied to external factors such as market saturation and player empowerment. In the last section, the thesis proposes selectively adapting NBA governance tools to the European football context. Enhanced revenue-sharing mechanisms and a “soft salary cap” with a progressive luxury tax are presented as potential reforms capable of narrowing the financial and competitive gap between elite and mid-tier clubs, thereby reinforcing UEFA’s credibility and safeguarding the long-term appeal of European competitions. The findings of this research highlight that sustainability and fairness in professional sports are not primarily determined by whether leagues are open or closed, but rather by the effectiveness and enforceability of redistributive mechanisms. The study stresses the urgency for UEFA to reconsider its governance philosophy and to adopt more ambitious tools, without excluding the possibility of drawing on strategies used outside Europe, with the ultimate goal of preserving competitive balance, financial sustainability and institutional legitimacy in the long run.