Background: CEO compensation as a phenomenon is a well explored topic in both forprofit and non-profit organisations but limited research is made on sports organisations. Due to the important social role that sports organisations entails, one can argue for the need to investigate the purpose of CEO compensation in these organisations as well.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to explore the purpose of CEO compensation in sports organisations. The purpose of executive compensation will further be studied from both a CEO perspective as well as from the board perspective.

Method: This thesis has an abductive research approach and proceeds from previous theories within corporate governance to investigate the purpose of CEO compensation in sports organisations. The empirical part consists of a qualitative interview study to investigate if previous theories are applicable to explain the purpose of CEO compensation in these organisations or if there exists other, unexplored purposes. ii

Findings: The findings of the study suggests that the view on the purpose of CEO compensation in sports organisations is different from the board perspective and the CEO perspective. From the board perspective, the purpose appears to be to control the behaviour of the CEO, to gain organisational legitimacy, to make the organisation more business-oriented and to attract individuals with shared interests. On the other hand, from the CEO perspective, the purposes appear to be to increase the motivation and to attain individual legitimacy.