The Determinants of Brazilian Football Clubs’ Debt Ratios

This paper explores the relationship between the debt ratio of Brazilian football clubs and several potential determinants, both financial and sports-related. Our explanatory variables are Current Ratio, Return on Assets, Score Percentage, Size, 12 Biggest Clubs, Access (to specific championships, e.g. Libertadores da America), Division, Title (won at time t) and Relegated (at time t). Data was collected from several publicly available channels and our sample was mostly decided according to this availability. The time range adopted was 2010-2013. The model employed was Generalized Estimating Equation. Our results suggest that debt ratios are more associated with their popularity or their participation in the highest division of its main championship rather than titles held, access to different competitions or relegation to lower levels. We believe that our findings may be useful for both practitioners, who might know the impact of their sports-related choices in their clubs’ debts, and policymakers, that could prepare differentiated policies for specific groups (e.g divisions).