Player Transfer as an Outsourcing Activity in Sport: The Opinions of the Coaches and Managers

Abstract

The popularity and accessibility of sports at global level allow the mobility (transfer) of athletes worldwide as labor force. This is called ‘sport labor migration’ and allows clubs to access a global market as an alternative to local market. In this study, foreign player transfer is accepted as an outsourcing. In this context, club managers and coaches were asked to evaluate their foreign player transfers in terms of outsourcing. The data were collected through the interviews conducted with the coaches and administrators of 9 teams, which were chosen through purposive sampling method among 16 teams playing in Turkish Women’s Basketball League. The participants were asked to provide their opinions regarding the transfer of foreign players and evaluate them in terms of three basic functions of outsourcing: (1) cost minimization, (2) quality improvement and (3) resource access. According to the findings, while sports clubs can increase the quality of their teams through foreign player transfers that they can use globally, they can also reducing the player costs. Sports clubs should be able to manage foreign player transfers correctly not only in terms of sporting success but also in terms of their economic sustainability. The results of this study may reveal that the transfer of foreign players as outsourcing is seen as a successful activity of sports clubs.

Keywords

• foreign player
• player mobility
• labor migration
• immigration
• productivity