Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Sports www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper) 2312-5187 ISSN (Online) 2312-5179 An International Peer-reviewed Journal DOI: 10.7176/JTHS Vol.43, 2019 1 Considering Football Teams from a Resource Dependency Theory Perspective Samba Sowe School of Business, Ibn Haldun University. No:2 34494 Basaksehir/ISTANBUL/TURKEY Abstract Football is known to be one of the most popular and widely viewed sports around the world. This sport is a well- followed source of entertainment by people from all four corners of the world and its recognition is tremendously increasing. The aim of this study is to examine the actions and strategies football teams use/implement in other to reduce their resource dependency on other teams. The findings of our literature review indicate that football teams use mergers, hiring, executive succession and training as strategies in reducing their resource dependency on other teams. Despite few studies or non-looking at resource dependency theory in a football team perspective this research tried to look at the strategic decisions they can take (football teams) in a highly competitive environment to reduce their resource dependency on other teams. The limitations of our paper includes the lack of enough reference materials when it comes to football most specifically the strategies that football teams use in reducing their resource dependency on other teams as well as our examples being limited to only England and Spain which is not a total representation of all football teams. Keywords Football, Football Teams, Resource Dependency Theory, Strategies DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/43-01 Publication date:September 30 th 2019 1. Introduction Being one of, if not the most popular and followed sport in the world has made it one of the most lucrative business ventures for many. Football or soccer as named in America and Canada can be argued as the most popular ball game around the world. The game requires a lot of energy and hard work to play and hence the need for getting skills and speed as a footballer in a competitive team. Many believe that the sport started in England in 1863 due to the split of rugby football and association football (name of football at the time). This split gave birth to the Football Association in England in the same year, which shows it becoming the first council responsible for the day to day running of the game in the country (FIFA, 1994). Football I quote “is a game in which two teams of 11 players using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms, try to maneuver the ball into the opposing team’s goal. Only the goalkeeper is permitted to handle the ball and may do so only within the penalty area surrounding the goal. The team that scores more goals wins”(Rolling et al., 2019, p. 1). When it comes to actions and practices that football teams use, none or few papers have addressed them so far. Most of the papers are discussing resource dependence in other perspectives apart from football teams. For instance, Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) concentrated on the issue of resource dependence looking at how organizational environments affect them and how they respond to external constrains. The major issue that is mainly talked about in this piece of work is the relationship of the environment and organizations and how the environment in which they operate influence them (organizations). Malatesta and Smith (2014) in looking at resource dependency concentrated on the strategies (actions and practices) contemporary public and nonprofit management uses in other to cope with the issues of resource problems. , Hillman and Dalziel (2003) in their article concentrated of the roles board of directors play in gaining critical resources needed by the organizations they represent. These few examples and many more have discussed resource dependence looking at examples from business organizations or firms but not in football teams and this creates a gap that this study aims to fill. This article will be concentrating on four major strategies that football teams use to reduce their resources dependence on other teams and these are; Mergers, Hiring, Training and Executive Succession which serves as the scope of our study. These I believe are the major actions and strategies football teams use so as to reduce their dependency ratio on other teams for resources. They could also be seen to encompass most of the major strategies, actions and practices organizations use in reducing resource dependency. It is important for any team that wants to be part of the best in a particular league they play in to be able to hire one of the best footballers, train them well, appoint qualified, influential and experienced managers and also make mergers when it is necessary. These strategies when implemented well by a particular team it goes a long way in reducing their dependency on resources from other teams. The good thing about not being dependent on someone for resources is that you are able to do what ever you want without waiting for anyone or needing something from someone. On the other hand, when someone is giving you a particular resource for the running of your football club or organization there is a high possibility that they will have an influence over the decisions you make and sometimes what you want to do and what they want you to do may differ and this may create problems. A