Purpose

The latest developments in the football industry, the commodification of sport, the excessive focus on profitability and the limited attention to social and environmental aspects have caused a legitimation crisis for football clubs. According to the legitimacy theory, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure represents a tool capable of allowing the construction or repair of legitimacy. This study, in line with this theory, aims to analyse the amount of CSR disclosure provided by football clubs and the determinants, related to visibility, of the level of information provided.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a manual content analysis on the corporate websites of the 80 football clubs that qualified for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League group stages for the 2019–2020 year to measure the level of CSR disclosure and subsequently a regression analysis to examine the impact of visibility on the amount of information provided.

Findings

Results reveal that football clubs still disclose relatively little information about sustainability issues, and that sports performance visibility, human capital visibility and social media visibility positively affect the amount of information that football clubs disclose.

Originality/value

This study extends the horizons of CSR disclosure to the football industry which is still little explored in the academic literature. Furthermore, it extends the scope of legitimacy theory, showing how CSR disclosure can be a means for football clubs to obtain or repair legitimacy. Furthermore, this study extends the list of determinants of the level of CSR disclosure, showing that visibility can influence the amount of CSR information.

中文翻译：

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作为合法化策略的 CSR 披露：来自足球行业的证据

目的

足球行业的最新发展、体育运动的商品化、对盈利能力的过度关注以及对社会和环境方面的关注有限，导致了足球俱乐部的合法化危机。根据合法性理论，企业社会责任（CSR）披露是一种能够构建或修复合法性的工具。根据这一理论，本研究旨在分析足球俱乐部提供的 CSR 披露量以及与所提供信息水平的可见性相关的决定因素。

设计/方法/方法

本研究对 2019-2020 年获得欧洲冠军联赛和欧洲联赛小组赛资格的 80 家足球俱乐部的企业网站进行手动内容分析，以衡量企业社会责任披露水平，随后进行回归分析以检验可见性对所提供信息量的影响。

发现

结果表明，足球俱乐部披露的关于可持续性问题的信息仍然相对较少，而且体育表现可见性、人力资本可见性和社交媒体可见性对足球俱乐部披露的信息量产生积极影响。

原创性/价值

本研究将企业社会责任披露的视野扩展到足球行业，这在学术文献中仍然鲜有探讨。此外，它扩展了合法性理论的范围，展示了企业社会责任披露如何成为足球俱乐部获得或修复合法性的一种手段。此外，这项研究扩展了 CSR 披露水平的决定因素列表，表明可见性可以影响 CSR 信息的数量。