Producing Player Value: How Elite Football Clubs Assess, Justify and Stabilise Players as Strategic Assets

Abstract

Elite football clubs operate in a context where sporting performance, financial sustainability, data-driven evaluation, and player development must be managed simultaneously by club representatives. Within this environment, players occupy a dual position as both human contributors and strategic assets. Although prior research has examined football clubs through perspectives such as commercialisation, player investment, market conditions, relational dynamics, and performance technologies, less is known about how clubs integrate these influences in practice as they assess and justify player value. This thesis addresses this gap by examining how elite football clubs construct, compare, stabilise and act upon player value in organisational decision-making. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with representatives from Swedish elite football, complemented by document analysis, the study develops an integrated framework centred on valuation studies and supported by concepts of commensuration, quantification, organisational devices, translation and decision-making under ambiguity. The findings show that player value is not treated as a fixed attribute, but is produced through situated valuation practices. Clubs qualify players in relation to specific needs, stabilise valuation through devices such as templates, KPIs, age categories and shortlists, and translate similar valuation categories differently depending on financial position, squad needs, market status and strategic direction. The thesis contributes to valuation studies by showing how plural and uncertain assessments of players as both strategic assets and human contributors can be made comparable, defensible, and actionable in organisational practice.