THE VALUE OF SPONSORSHIPS IN EUROPE

Sassuolo second in Italy, Real Madrid and Manchester earn more than the entire Serie A

From Deloitte’s annual report, “Football Money League,” in the 2016/17 season, the aggregate revenue generated by the 20 clubs with the highest turnover amounts to 7.896 billion euros, of which 38% comes from commercial activities, 45% from broadcasting, and the remaining 17% from matchday revenues. Within the commercial category, the largest share is attributed to shirt sponsorship contracts, which significantly penalizes Italian clubs. Despite the decision by several teams to add a secondary and/or rear sponsor to the main sponsor, the gap between Serie A and foreign leagues, particularly the Premier League, remains substantial.

For the 2018-2019 season, the Jersey-Sponsor Index 2018 published by SportEconomy forecasts a total income of 126 million euros for Serie A. The survey, aimed at highlighting the commercial value of each club’s shirt, ranks them accordingly, excluding technical sponsors as they do not ensure full comparability. In fact, these agreements sometimes include the licensing of merchandising activities to the sponsor for a fixed fee, while in other cases, they allow the club to directly manage sales activities. The case of Juventus is notable, as they rejected 6 million euros annually from Adidas for brand licensing, opting instead to internalize the sales activities of their products, establishing their own commercial structure and ensuring 100% of the revenue from Juventus-branded product sales. Other clubs, such as Milan and Inter, have always chosen the fixed fee approach, signing contracts with higher amounts but leaving sales and a significant portion of the revenue to the sponsor, while avoiding the costs of running their own sales network (stores, staff, managers, inventory management, advertising…).

The top six clubs in terms of shirt sponsorship revenue collectively earn over 100 million euros, representing 80% of the total, “leaving” 25 million euros to the remaining 14 clubs. Below is the ranking:

Fiorentina, the only club without a sponsor, uses “Save the Children” as its main partner. Furthermore, agreements such as Lazio’s with “Marathon Bet” will end on January 1, 2019, following the entry into force of the Dignity Decree, which prohibits the use of sponsors from the betting industry. Finally, the agreement between Chievo and the Paluani brand (owned by the Campedelli family, who also owns Chievo) allows for the possibility of replacing it during the season.

A brief comparison with the major foreign clubs highlights the vast gap that Italian clubs face and how this affects their competitiveness on the international stage. Below is the Top 10 of sponsorship income in Europe, in which only one Italian club could appear.

Credits to Martino Bernocchi