Importance Of Loan System In Football – Research Proposal

Literature Review

Required to produce a written submission demonstrating the skills involved in the process of defining, developing, conducting and reporting a research project and creating a research proposal?

Proposal will include areas such as a title page, contents page, an introduction to the topic of interest, a mini literature review, a research question /sub questions drawn from the literature review, a choice of method/s and a timeline of work and limitations?

Loan in football refers to the specific arrangement in which case a particular player is permitted to play temporarily for a club apart from the club the player is having a contract. Earlier, loan system was not frequent, but now the trend has changed (Carlisle, 2011). Liverpool has ten, Chelsa has twenty six and Arsenal has nineteen players out on loan. Loan deals may be short term as well as long term and players are loaned by other clubs die to various reason (DELANEY, 2014). It has been observed that generally, young footballers are loaned to a club in the lower leagues for gaining first team experience (Gibson, 2014). In this period, the parent club is accountable for paying the salary to the loaned player. Generally, a club chooses to loan a player when they encounter shortage in the transfer fund (Lawrence, 2014). Additionally, it has been observed that clubs take loan in order to cover suspensions and injuries of the regular players. It has been observed that the football players are loaned as they are not happy or having some dispute with their current club (Simmons, 2007). It is evident that loan system significantly helps the recipient club to get a player employed as well as trained by a big club. It is considered to be a major advantage for the club availing the loan system. It has been observed that most of the big clubs take the cream of the young talented footballers for filling their academies.

Short term loans have some issues. A club can loan footballer for one or two months and they do not need to make significant contribution to his wages and therefore it can achieve an unfair advantage over their rivals (Rayner, 2013). The smaller clubs or the recipient clubs identify the suspensions s well as injuries which indicate the need for strengthening their team and they do not need to commit any finances for the transaction. In this manner, the recipient club gains unfair benefits over their competitors who do not have the same squad restrictions (Williams, 2011).

Loan system has significant implication for the parent club. When a club does not want to sell or transfer a player, it chooses to send the footballer out on loan so that the young footballer can get his regular football. This ensures that the value of the player is maintained. When a footballer is playing in reserve he does not get thee exposure which is gained while he is playing at the lower level (Jurejko, 2015). The footballer gets a chance to appear in the lower division that gives an opportunity to play in front of the large crowd. This was not possible if the footballer was only engaged in playing the reserve football (SHERGOLD, 2013). Additionally, it has been found that this is a test of the attitude of the footballers. It helps in testing his potential to consider this and opportunity and to utilize it. If the young footballer can perform well in those matches, the employer or the parent club would continue the contract with him.  It is important for the young players to experience the league football.

Research Aims and Objectives

Research aims and objectives of this study are listed below:

To analyze the concept of loan moves for young elite footballers.

To assess the importance as well as effectiveness of the loan system in football.

Addressing the research questions significantly helps in achieving the research objectives. The research questions of this study are given below:

What are the implications of loan system for the parent club and recipient club?

What is the effectiveness and importance of loan move for the young elite footballers?

Research methodology is an indispensable aspect of research proposal and success of the research is significantly reliant upon the research methodology. It is a comprehensive approach that helps in providing clear understanding of several components of the research study (Jha, 2008). The research methodology focus on designing a research methodology that is appropriate for achieving the research aims of objectives (Adams, 2007). As it is crucial for the success of the, the researcher must be careful in determining the path of the research for the specific study. This section will illustrate the approach and design of the research along with the technique for collecting different types of data.

Research onion is referred as the metaphor that illustrates distinct elements of a particular research study.  It is a systematic approach that identifies all the essential components for addressing the research problems. The research onion has been conceptualized for elucidating various phases that is essential to undertake as each of the steps has a specific implications. Hence, the researcher needs to set off the procedure of exploration from the outer most layer of the conceptual replica. In this manner, each layer of the research onion will be addressed for reaching a firm conclusion. This conceptual replica of the research methodology is accountable for making significant contribution that structures various activities and developing effective strategies so that the research study can be guided to the right direction (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007).

The first or the outer most layer of the research onion is termed as research philosophy which is associated with a set of idea or belief related to the type of thee environment. This layer is majorly responsible for justifying how the research study will be conducted. As this is the first layer, other activities and approach of the research studies are found to be significantly reliant upon the research philosophy. Two common philosophies are positivism and constructism (Walliman, 2006). This paper aims to analyze the importance as well as effectiveness of loan moves in case of the young footballers. Hence, positivism philosophy will be suitable in conducting the study in the desired direction.

Research approach is one of the most important and the second layer of the research onion. It plays a major role in determining the research pathway along with various activities of the research in order to achieve its objective. Generally researchers use either inductive or deductive approach for the exploration study. In case of inductive approach, the researcher needs to move from a specific approach in order to draw a generalized conclusion (Supino and Borer, 2012). In this case, theoretical evidences are not fund and it helps in development of a new theory on the basis of observation. In contrast, deductive approach generally focuses on development of the study on the basis of existing research study. It has been observed that positivist philosophy encourages adopting deductive approach (Welman et al., 2005). In this case, statistical and analytical tools will be utilized for analysis of the gathered information. Therefore, in this study, deductive approach is appropriate.

Research Question

Research design is the third layer that is accountable for determining the pathway of the study and ensuring the right direction of the paper. This research study has emphasized on analyzing the importance of the loan move for the young football players. There are three common types of research designs: descriptive explanatory and exploratory (Adams, 2007). In this paper, descriptive design has been found to be suitable for the objectives of this research study. Descriptive study assists in making significant contribution in order to analyze the outcomes of the research study by addressing the predetermined research questions. Thus, descriptive approach can satisfy the principle requirements of this study and it must be chosen (Bryman, 2008).

The results of the research are dependent on the collected data. The results of the study are also reliant upon the information gathered by the researcher. Hence, it is very important to collect data carefully so that those are reliable as well as relevant. This research study will require two types of data primary and secondary (Walliman, 2006).

Primary data can be collected by conducting surveys, interviews etc. These data are directly collected by questioning the respondents so that they can express their views regarding that topic. In this study, the football club authorities and the young football players must be interviewed. It must be noted that the club authorities and football players must voluntarily take part in the interview. A set of open ended questions must be prepared (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007).

Secondary data refers to the available information relevant to the topic. Theoretical frameworks, research findings of studies etc are included within the secondary data. In this study secondary data will be collected from trusted resources such as peer reviewed journal articles, trusted websites and newspaper articles (Supino and Borer, 2012).

The gathered data will be analyzed with the aid of various analytical tools. It is evident that the study will gather qualitative data and hence, qualitative data analysis will be helpful in analyzing the primary as well as secondary data. This technique will help in achieving the firm conclusion (Morse, 2009).

Gantt Chart helps in providing an overview of all the activities along with the time taken for completion of each task. It is a systematic presentation of the research activities that needs to be conducted within the stated time period in order to complete the study within the stipulated time.

Principal Activities	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Selection of research topic and analysis of research scope
Identification of secondary data sources
Literature Review
Description of Research Methodology
Preparation of survey questions
Collection of primary data
Data analysis
Comparison of findings
Conclusion and recommendation
Final submission

This research study has few limitations and those are listed below:

It is evident that the time period allocated for conducting study is inadequate and time constraint has reduced the scope of the study.

This paper has only considered the club authorities and the young football players for gathering relevant information. Other people engaged with football and its administration may have a different perspective that is not considered in this paper.

In this study the data collection mechanism has been administrated by the researcher and it may lead to social biasness.

References

Adams, J. (2007). Research methods for graduate business and social science students. New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

Bryman, A. (2008). Social research methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carlisle, J. (2011). Carlisle: The weird world of being on loan. [online] ESPN.com. Available at: https://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/columnist/carlisle_jeff/id/6932906/the-weird-world-being-loan-soccer-jeff-carlisle [Accessed 13 May 2015].

DELANEY, M. (2014). Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger slams player loan system. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-manager-arsne-wenger-slams-player-loan-system-9241211.html [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Gibson, O. (2014). Madness of Premier League loan game. [online] BBC Sport. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29280337 [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Jha, N. (2008). Research methodology. Chandigarh: Abhishek Publications.

Jurejko, J. (2015). England gets emergency loan reprieve. [online] BBC Sport. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31992432 [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Lawrence, A. (2014). Madness of Premier League loan game. [online] BBC Sport. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29280337 [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Morse, J. (2009). Mixing Qualitative Methods. Qualitative Health Research, 19(11), pp.1523-1524.

Rayner, S. (2013). The Agenda: Loan system is damaging Premier League football. [online] journallive. Available at: https://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/sport-opinion/agenda-loan-system-damaging-premier-6193862 [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2007). Research methods for business students. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

SHERGOLD, A. (2013). Thought all the transfer wheeling and dealing had ended? Think again… the Emergency Loan Window has opened!. [online] Mail Online. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2274879/Football-League-loan-window-explained.html [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Simmons, R. (2007). OVERPAID ATHLETES? COMPARING AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN FOOTBALL. WorkingUSA, 10(4), pp.457-471.

Supino, P. and Borer, J. (2012). Principles of research methodology. New York, NY: Springer.

Walliman, N. (2006). Social research methods. London: SAGE.

Welman, C., Kruger, F., Mitchell, B. and Huysamen, G. (2005). Research methodology. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.

Williams, R. (2011). Football’s short-team loan system is in dire need of reformation | Richard Williams. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/feb/22/football-loans-richard-williams [Accessed 13 May 2015].