Balanseføring av fotballspillere

Abstract

For a football club the most important assets are the players. This study reviews how the players are being accounted for in the financial report by Norwegian clubs. NGAAP sets the account rules and definition of immaterial assets. Together with other relevant theory and articles recording football players as immaterial assets, these are used as the papers framework. Using the account rules as the starting point, the paper aims to show how the Norwegian clubs implement these rules. The report builds on a case study of 14 Norwegian football clubs who were in the top Norwegian league in 2016. The data collection has been done through a semi structured interview over the phone. I addition to the interviews, we have collected data from chosen British clubs. The reason behind this is to compare practice in the UK and Norway. Based upon the fact that the Norwegian reporting standards on the subject have been modelled after IFRS standards we consider this relevant for the study. The results of the study show that most of the Norwegian clubs doesn’t follow the accounting rules, when capitalizing player contracts. The most interesting result is the club’s interpretations of cost associated with acquisition and treatment of conditional purchase sum. Based upon the accounting rules for impairment the study shows that none of the 14 clubs have a CGU making it possible to identify a value in use. The findings are later in the paper discussed based upon the theoretical framework of the paper. The study also points to the relationship between the weaknesses in the accounting standards for immaterial assets and impairment testing. The paper concludes that Norwegian football clubs are not following the accounting standards when capitalizing, or when testing player contracts for impairment. The paper’s ending includes considerations of possible consequences by not following the account rules. We touch upon subjects that are not directly within the scope of this paper. Although we believe these are subjects that need further consideration, and they are the bases for suggestions for further research.