Discuss whether Rugby players are “valuable” assets of a business or an expense. Use the definitions of assets and expenses in this book to show which of the elements of financial statements “human resources”.
Today world is seeing shift from manufacturing to services industry which is now taking more and more people under its umbrella. Few decades ago it was shift from agriculture to manufacturing sector for most developing economies. This trend of rise in services sector has raised questions on accounting policies related to Human resources. ‘Human resources’ is used for the people employed by business that includes use of talent, intelligence, knowledge, experience and understanding of the organisation, its culture and the history. (Islam and Sarker, 2016).For an IT company which has negligible assets in form of machine or patents or infrastructure, etc their man power becomes their strengths. (Cheriyan, 2012). An organisation has both physical as well as human resources but the organisation is successful only when some human is able to utilize the physical resources well. That is why there is lot of emphasis on talent and management these days. Without human resource an organisation cannot run. Same goes for Rugby players. The team which is income generation source for the club is nothing without players. So, players are like the assets for the club on the basis of whose expertise and talent the team is making money. (L. Bullen and Eyler, no date)
Previously organisations tried to avoid expenses in the form of money spent on employees and first step towards cost cutting came from reduction in number of employees. Now they have started recognizing the importance of human resources. Going by definition of assets, they are resources which are controlled by an entity as result of historic events which help derive economic benefits in future for the entity. When we look at Rugby players, they are assets in the way that they are the reason for money inflow that will happen for the club through future gate receipts received by the organisation. The training and employment of players would constitute a valid past event. But, are these rugby players ‘controlled’ by entity, as a result of the contract? Are players capable to leave whenever they want to or are they slaves)? Hence looking at it from control perspective they do not meet definition of an asset. Hence they satisfy partial definition of assets because these players do not belong to organisation throughout. Also there are issues related to measurement of the cost or value of the players, which makes it difficult to record assets. The football industry is the only UK sector where human resource accounting has been applied in financial reporting, in accounting for transfer fees (Morrow, 1999).
On the contrary looking at the definition of an expense which is decrease in equity which represents decrease in profits in the form of economic benefits as outflow, as reduction of assets or as the incurrence of liabilities. Salaries and wages expenditures fall within this definition because cash or benefits have to be paid for work of players. Consequently, expenditure done on human resources in the form of their training, accommodation, food, etc are therefore is therefore usually classified as an expense. Costs incurred in selection, recruitment, training, and development increase skill set of employees and hence as per modern view of accounting are investment which helps organisation gain benefits in future, but what about scenario when this trained person leave organisation? Expense is money spent which after a year nothing has left to show it as items have been consumed like rent, raw material, power cost, etc. In case of Rugby players, we cannot be sure about duration of a Rugby player staying with the club and also, contracts have been sometimes called illegal too. There have also been instances of players violating the contracts and moving to a different club. Hence tenure of a Rugby player is not clearly defined which adds to lack of clarity in how to deal with the cost incurred. A club trains and takes care of all needs of a player, but players move to different clubs in pursuit of more money or fame. Hence this issue needs to be tackled. If clubs start considering them as assets, then there are costs associated with development and training of player which should be expense or maintenance? Also, it is becoming difficult to value a player as all players command different valuations. Hence placing a fair value to a player as an asset is again a challenge. On the other hand, treating players as expense poses another challenge where a player might sign contract of couple of years and fees is paid in first year. So, there would be huge jump in profits of the club in second year w.r.t. first year which got subdues because of huge player fees and impacted bottom line.
In a thesis by B.C. Brommer he has tried understanding future economic benefits that a club gets from a player and found out that there is no correlation between investment in player and economic benefits for that club. He also argues that players do not meet the IFRS recognition criteria for assets as “Future economic benefits” argument is nullified. (Brommer, 2011).Looking at the way contracts are made for Rugby players we see there are multiple types of contracts which last from one season to three to four seasons and hence are spread across 1-4 years of window and for some players they go till 5 years. In 2015, Wallabies flyhalf got opportunity to sign a flexible contract where he could play both for Australia as well as Japan. (Writer, 2015). Hence, we see will of players makes a lot of impact. They cannot be controlled. Even structure of contract is such that they are though restricted still they have an option to get out of contract and buy the contract period. So, saying since the contract of some years has been signed and player will not leave is misunderstanding. Players do leave at their discretion. The fees paid to Rugby players are in the form of one time token money as well as monthly salaries which are pre decided at the time of contract. One who wants to walk out of contract needs to buyout the contract as well as they needs to offer player a better salary. So, even future economic benefits are wiped out in thin air if a player walks out of contract.
For a club, Rugby players are like lease of asset which they have taken under them. There is need of payment for this lease in the form of salaries of the players according to their market value on monthly basis. Also, there is a legal contract which exists. Just like lease rental payments are treated as expense, similarly this analogy can be extended to Rugby players too who are definitely valuable to the club but can be bought out by others and have their own will which does not give controlling rights to club over player like an organization can make use of land on lease but can’t control other factors about it. But the players also show characteristics of a “Machine”, where because of a player a club performs well and get revenues, but with time it needs training and development like a machine needs “maintenance and repair”. Also, as player ages, his/her value decreases, tenure of contract shifts to one year contracts and salary paid also decreases along with his value and demand among the clubs. Hence just like a machine’s value decreases with time, the same happens to a player.
There is a more controversial topic, accounting treatment for transfer fees of players. Transfer fees are payments made for acquiring player registration, and it provides exclusive access to professional activities of the individual. The grey area is in treatment of player as asset or expense and also amount of control over player. Previously traditional treatment was to account for them as expense and transaction was recognized as operating/exceptional item which reduced income of the club. Few clubs took capitalization route which inflated assets as well as reported earnings. (Rowbottom, 2002)
The rift between traditional and modern accounting method to calculate value of a Rugby player and other Human resources continue. There is no clear instruction on how to calculate how much a firm has benefitted from a player/employee in terms of economic benefit and also it is impossible to calculate future earnings from investment in an employee because of various factors involve which makes their valuation tough. (Steen & Welch, no date). There is need of common regulation so that all the clubs and organisations have uniform reporting when treating them. This difference in approach leads to inflated bottom line for those who show players as an asset and amortize them over time whereas unstable bottom line for those who treat their salaries and expenditures on their training as expense. A common accounting standard for this industry would make choice for an investor easy and understanding clear on looking at financial statements. He/she won’t have to look for approach used by each organization in treating human resource once the industry specific guidelines are issued for treatment of human resources for reporting purposes.
References
Islam, M.S. and Sarker, J. (2016) ‘Human resource accounting: Practical challenges in recognition, measurement, accounting treatment procedure and a possible way out’, IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 18(09), pp. 41–46. doi: 10.9790/487x-1809024146.
Bullen, M. and Eyler, K.-A. (no date) ‘Human resource accounting and international develop ments: implications for measurement of human capital’, Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies.
Brommer, B.C. (2011) Does the recognition of f ootball players contracts require extra attention? Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Available at: https://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=116328 (Accessed: 4 January 2017).
Writer, S. (2015) Bernard Foley signs three year flexible contract with Australian Rugby union. Available at: https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2016/02/09/bernard-foley-signs-three-year-flexible-contract-with-australian-rugby-union (Accessed: 4 January 2017).
Steen, A. and Welch, D. (no date) ‘Are Accounting Metrics Applicable to Human Resources? The Case of Return on Valuing Assignments’, Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal, 5(3).
Morrow, S. (1999). The New Business of Football, MacMillan Business, UK.
Rowbottom, N. (2002) ‘The Application Of Intangible Asset Accounting And Discretionary Policy Choices In The Uk Football Industry’, The British Accounting Review, 34(4), Pp. 335–355. Doi: 10.1006/Bare.2002.0215.
Cheriyan, N.K. (2012) A Case Study On Human Resource Accounting In Infosys Available at: https://thecommercepedia.blogspot.in/2012/05/case-study-on-human-resource-accounting.html (Accessed: 4 January 2017).
Morrow, S. (1992). `Putting people on the balance sheet: HRA applied to professional football clubs’, Royal Bank of Scotland Review, 174(June), pp. 10–19.
Morrow, S. (1995). `Recording the human resource of football players as accounting assets: establishing a methodology’, Irish Accounting Review, 2(1), pp. 115–132.
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