Football is by far the world's most popular sport with a well established fan base in over 150 countries. And with such popularity, come great riches. The modern game today is as much about flamboyance and passion on the pitch, as it is about money making in the board rooms. The top 20 football clubs in the world earned staggering revenues exceeding €3 bn in the 2004-05 season. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the revenue model of modern-day football clubs and gain insights into how top football clubs leverage their tangible and intangible assets to generate these revenues.
Memories
of the magical moments from the FIFA 2006 Football World Cup
in Germany, culminating in the Italian captain, Fabio Cannavaro,
lifting the cherished trophy, still linger in the minds of
football fans worldwide. However, the world's premier competition
among national soccer teams is just a quadrennial event, and
the true spirit and passion of the world's most popular sport
is undisputedly kept alive on a daily basis through club football
action.International
superstars shed their national identities and join players
from a multitude of nationalities to compete in the domestic
club football leagues in the various homes of soccer such
as England, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and France,
etc.
It
can be argued that club football is as popular, if not more,
than international football. Mega clubs like Manchester United,
Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus, Ajax, and Bayern
Munich etc., are household names, not just in their respective
nations, but all over the world. And their team sheets boast
of glittering gladiators of the game like Wayne Rooney, Rio
Ferdinand, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, David Beckham, Kaka, Francesco
Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon, etc., who don't
come cheap. Top European football clubs pay their biggest
superstars in the range of £100,000 to £130,000
(Rs. 85-110 lacs) per week, in annual contracts worth well
over $8-10 mn (Rs. 36-47 cr) including bonus—staggering
sums of money indeed. |
