Accounting & Auditing Role in Professional Sports

Sport is one thing that is loved by many people. if we look back, interest in this field is growing very fast. Passion for sports does not look at age, even people who are very old still enjoy it. Therefore, it is not surprising that sports become the center of public attention and cause the economy to concentrate in this field. Major sporting competitions and events are now multi-billion-dollar international concerns (e.g. The Olympic Games, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, English Premier League). These and other major national and international sporting contests are rapaciously “consumed” (e.g. memberships, game-day tickets and spending, broadcast subscriptions, and merchandising) by large and enthusiastic audiences. This is what makes the sports field an attraction for many companies to sponsor. Not only that, many athletes are sponsored by sports companies in order to develop their abilities, facilitate them and more. As we know before, where sports can be the center of the economy, this is where we will see where accounting and auditing come in. Recent years have seen a rising interest in mobilising sporting contexts for extending our understanding of a range of accounting-related practices and issues, such asthose relating to accountability

The rapid rise in the commercial value of sport has seeded a diverse stream of research in

Accounting. In sports, such as football, there is a term called financial fair play. For football fans, this is certainly not a foreign thing. Financial fair play aims to promote a balance of competitive and financial discipline in the field of sport which has given rise to much debate and conflict. Financial regulation has attracted attention from various research disciplines. For example, research on salary limits has focused on their legal status and their various impacts on league competitiveness. In the context of European football, research also focuses on the impact of financial fair play rules on achieving stated objectives such as financial equity and competitive balance. In accounting research, the relationship between financial regulation and assurance has received special attention. As audits emerge in other new areas, salary limit audits and similar verification activities underscore the importance of assurance in maintaining the legitimacy and integrity of financial regulatory regimes in professional sports. Issues relating to accounting practice, accountability, performance management and controlare as important to understanding the business of sport as they are to any other field of enterprise. Many aspects of accounting practice in sporting entities bear a close resemblance to those featured in business enterprise more generally (e.g. demands for planning and strategy, financial management, human resource management and performance measurement).

​​Discussing accountability, we can see the case where the Manchester United football club was taken over by the Glazer family. It starts with an insatiable fan interest and attraction to information, transparency, and control. The takeover of the club MU fulfills all of the company's formal accountability obligations, but in this case it also appears that fans are powerless to exert their influence in the takeover process and render accountability meaningless from the perspective of the stakeholder group.

This surge in interest in the sport has resulted in an increase in the broadcasting rights of sporting events, the attractiveness of sponsors, and the value of the investment that goes into this field. The role of accounting is growing along with increasing professionalization. One of the figures said that the role of accounting is now more important socially. Simply put, accounting has had a huge impact on professional sports.