The importance of accounting reporting on players’ registration rights and the relationship to value: evidence from football clubs in Iraq

The research aims to identify the role of applying the International Accounting Standard (38) Intangible Assets in enhancing the value of football clubs, to achieve reform in the sports sector in Iraq, and to demonstrate the accounting reporting of intangible assets in the financial statements of sports clubs by the requirements of the International Accounting Standard (38). This study focused on player contracts (player registration rights) as a basic element of intangible assets in football clubs, by analyzing player transfer activity for a sample of Iraqi football clubs (Al-Karkh Football Club) for the years (2019 - 2022), and analyzing The clubs financial statements and re-preparing the financial statements after the process of reporting players registration rights. The study reached a set of results, the most important of which is that football clubs in Iraq treat the contracts of professional and local players as expenses, and are not recognized as intangible assets and that the period for which the club contracts with the professional player is often for one season, contrary to the instructions and rules of the football federations. The most important thing the study recommended is the necessity of recognizing player registration costs and capitalizing them in the balance sheet as intangible assets by International Accounting Standard (38) and adopting the player trading section in the profit and loss statement because of the positive results it achieved that were reflected in maximizing value.