Barca & Real Lead La Liga to Top of Merchandising Rankings

The European Football Merchandising Report 2010 has been released by Sport+Markt, allergist along with PR Marketing, symptoms revealing that the clubs in the five European top leagues generate merchandising and licensing revenue of US$866.8m.

This is one of the key results of the report, cough which interviewed a total of 182 top flight clubs and over 10,000 people from ten countries. In the 2009/2010 season, the clubs from England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain were able to increase their income by more than 6 per cent in comparison to the 2008 investigation.

For the first time, the clubs from Spain‘s Primera División, which generated revenue of approx. $261m in the past season, occupied first position in the rankings. However, whilst almost 80 per cent of their income can be allocated to the two global clubs, Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona, the $230.8m generated by England‘s clubs is distributed much more evenly. With merchandising income of $178.5m, the German Bundesliga follows, clearly ahead of Italy‘s Serie A ($105.8m) and France‘s Ligue 1 ($92m).

According to Dr. Peter Rohlmann of PR Marketing: “The boom in European football merchandising is on-going. However, it is primarily the less established leagues that can look forward to significant growth, as they are gradually identifying the importance of club merchandising in brand management.”

Merchandise bearing the logos of Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona are in the strongest demand.  English clubs Liverpool FC (3rd) and Manchester United FC (6th) were also amongst the top 10 clubs in terms of retail revenue.

The top selling item of merchandise for European clubs remains the jersey with 13.7 million replica shirts were sold in the 2009/10 season. The two sports equipment giants, Adidas and Nike, enjoyed a combined market share of approx. 83 per cent, whilst the remaining 34 kit manufacturers in the ten leagues sold a mere 2.3 million jerseys in total (17 per cent).

Andreas Ullmann, Senior Consultant SPORT+MARKT, stated: “Jersey sales represent the core business of many clubs and are often responsible for around 50 per cent of merchandising revenue. Cultural differences do exist regarding preferences for certain products. Russian or Ukrainian fans, for example, tend to buy more warm scarves, whilst English fans like to buy mugs bearing the logo of their favourite club.”