ABSTRACT
In a market economy, effective financial management is one of the most important aspects of the functioning of any company, which plays a connecting role between various areas of its activities and determines the company's position on the market, its competitiveness, prospects for sustainable development and cost growth. In this context, the assessment of the economic efficiency of sports organizations is also relevant, due to the high social significance of the sports industry and its huge popularity among the population. The study selected leagues that use different approaches to the formation and distribution of financial resources in their activities. Thus, the subject of this research is the existing mechanisms for financing the activities of sports subjects. The comparative report of UEFA on club licensing for pre-COVID-19 period was used as an analytical basis for the study. The results obtained during the study showed that with an effective approach to the process of managing financial and economic activities, the professional sports industry can be considered as a promising tool that can generate a significant material and non-material effect on various spheres of public activity, which affects the dynamic economic growth of the industry, as evidenced, in particular, by the performance index of the football leagues of Europe calculated in the work, showing the stable growth of the industry in the pre-COVID-19 period. © Institute of Society Transformation, 2021