Negotiations and power in soccer networks
http://www.90min.com/posts/5225732-psg-start-bidding-war-for-kylian-mbappe-after-offering-12m-salary-doubling-real-madrid-s-deal
Soccer is said to be the most widely viewed sport in the world. As a result thereof, large sums of money are often changing hands within the sport. From television and sponsorship deals worth billions of dollars, to certain players earning weekly wages to the tune of $ 400 000. One might argue that soccer, at the highest professional level, is a sport that is largely dictated by money.
One of the most important aspects of soccer (especially in the top European leagues) is transfers. A transfer is the movement of a player from on club to another. These transfers are contractually binding, with contracts generally lasting anywhere between one and 5 years. The success of a club depends largely on its ability to attract and retain world-class players and staff. This cycle is often self-perpetuating: the best clubs attract the best players, helping them maintain their positions at the top of their respective leagues, which in turn helps them attract more high-quality players, and so the cycle continues. Unsuccessful teams remain unsuccessful as a result of their inability to attract players of a high calibre.
These transfers often resemble bidding wars (in the form of first-price auctions) and negotiations with outside options. For example, the transfer of 18-year-old striker, Kylian Mbappe, from Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was a fierce battle between the Real Madrid and PSG. For every offer made by Real Madrid, PSG made a better offer. PSG eventually won this first-price auction and will pay their value for the player – $220 million – in summer 2018. Mbappe also always had the outside option of the other club who was interested in signing him. In a sense, he was the central node in a linear three-node graph. To his left was Real Madrid, and to his right was PSG. He had the most power in the network and could leverage one node’s offer in order to get a better deal from the other. It is also important to note that PSG had an advantage over Real Madrid because they are more financially powerful than Real Madrid and were able to offer Mbappe a more lucrative deal.
Networks can be found in various aspects of soccer, with the power of a node being determined largely by its position in a network as well as other factors.