ABSTRACT
In order to deliver benefits to society, European grassroots football clubs rely on their organizational capacity. The primary focus of grassroots football clubs might not be on making profit; however, they still need to break even as a first requirement for their financial sustainability. A grassroots football club's outputs and its intended outcomes depend upon its capacities and external environment. Football's importance as a social and economic phenomena within Europe is underlined by some 20 million men and women registered as players in more than 50 national football federations and the impact of grassroots football clubs goes beyond the sheer provision of the game. Roughly 72% of the sampled German and Polish grassroots football clubs are based in small municipalities/cities that have less than 20,000 inhabitants, while this number amounts to 60% of Italian and 58% of Norwegian clubs.
