OU on the BBC: PY Gerbeau's Rules Of The Game - Paying the penalty : Introduction

Production team

"The Premier division is big business and clubs expect to make big bucks. But in the lower leagues, the economics just don't add up. So in business terms, football is a real paradox."

The main aim in football is to win matches not to make a profit – but to play at all, football clubs must survive as businesses. The finances of football involve incentives and efforts, risks and rewards – four key ideas that lie at the heart of economic theory. Markets for football players are highly efficient – it is easy to see who has the best skills and players have strong incentives to find the highest bidders for their talents. On the other side football clubs compete so fiercely that their very existence is threatened.

In this programme PY Gerbeau looked at how a thirrd division club can survive in today's climate of football inequality. Following the collapse of ITV Digital, the division between the earnings of the Football League and the Premiership has widened even further, and with players' wage spending reaching 100% of the income for many clubs, the future for football as we know it looks to be in crisis.

When Indian hotelier Firoz Kassam bought Oxford United in 1999 he set out to create a new financial model for the running of a football club that was no longer just dependent on gate receipts, merchandising and inconsistent TV rights revenue. Will this model be a success, or will supporters feel cheated that football is no longer the focus?

"Firoz is a shrewd business man. For him, taking on Oxford United has really been a corporate rescue operation – something I know a lot about! He took over a sinking ship, but he's used his business skills to make the club viable again."

Football is a spectator sport – and fans expect value for the money they pay to watch.

"When I go to a game, what I want is a quality show from the moment I walk through the gates. For me, the value is in top-class football and the community feeling you get as part of a crowd supporting their team."

PY Gerbeau's Rules Of The Game in more depth: