Research question: In this short article, we explore whether highly diversified professional football clubs, from an investor perspective, are better prepared for an unpredictable global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic than undiversified clubs. Research methods: We apply event study methodology to analyze stock returns of football clubs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Analyzing a dataset comprising 5380 daily stock returns of 21 publicly listed football clubs in Europe during the season 2019-20, our results suggest that investors preferred stocks of clubs with high levels of product diversification during the COVID-19 shock period. Vice versa, we observe a moderate negative effect of geographic diversification, i.e. a club`s internationalization efforts. Both effects are robust across various model specifications and after adding several control variables. Implications: In the future, football executives may want to increasingly apply product diversification strategies to prepare for future crises better. In contrast, at least during a global health crisis, further expansion to international markets requires caution.
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