Nowadays, the center of football’s money is in Europe. That has, probably, always been the case. However, some initiatives may change that in a long term.
As its economy grows, Brazil’s clubs are expecting much more revenue from their sponsors in the next few years. The first club with a major revenue boost is Corinthians. Some high profile signings did the trick, Ronaldo (who is actually a partner of the club, keeping to himself a piece of the pie) and Roberto Carlos together again are a media favorite, that skyrocketed the amount the club is earning from the main sponsor this year to something around 45 million reais (~ 25 million USD). That number leaves Corinthians in fifth place among the biggest sponsorship amounts in the entire world, according to some Brazilian journalists, only behind Real Madrid, Bayern München, Liverpool and Manchester United (in that order). Corinthians’ sponsor is a corporate group that owns a few noticeable brands, and they are capitalizing by patching their several brands all over the team’s shirt.
On the opposite track of things is Argentina. Over there money is tight at the moment and football reflects that. One of the major clubs has a new sponsor that has decided to give the “shirt back to their supporters”. A bank is paying Racing, a club with serious financial issues, almost one million dollars to sponsor them this year, but they don’t show their name in the shirt, keeping it “clean” as the crowd usually likes it, almost like a throwback shirt.
Two teams with different types of sponsorships and with different perspectives for the season are simple illustrations of how money goes around in Football. In sports, for better or for worse, money matters.
Fabricio Presilli
Fabricio Presilli is a Brazilian sports maniac. He follows football leagues worldwide, making him a happy camper 365 days a year!
I like what Barcelona have done with Unicef and paid them to have their sponsor on the shirt. A great gesture from Barcelona and maybe the other teams could also do the same if they produced as many youngsters as them.
I’ve been reading recently (even though I might be a bit behind times) that the Brazilian economy is really strengthen and it’s showing with sponsorship and investment in football, even if it is external to the clubs. A little bit off topic, but I heard that Robinho is still awaiting his wages – is that true and way the hold up?
*Just a quick note as well. I’ve not posted here in a while but I plan to post soon if work allows!
Posted by Steven Jones | 21 March, 2010, 23:06Hi Steven, aparently tha is true. Robinho’s wages were supposed to be paid by some external investors in exchange for a sponsoring deal with Santos, that seem not to happend at all so becomes really difficult for a Braziliam tem to pay him 300.000 pounds a month, that is surreal for us. The Barcelona sponsor isn´t made just to get fans accostumed with a name in the shirte, so they can get a lucrative deal after that season? Even so is a nice gesture for the last two years.
Posted by Fabricio | 22 March, 2010, 12:34Aston Villa also deserve a mention here. Their shirt sponsor, Acorns, is a local children’s charity which I believe Villa put on their shirt for free. Another nice gesture.
Posted by Geoff Edwards | 23 March, 2010, 07:59I didn’t know that Geoff – always nice to find things like that out. I wonder if they’d swap it for a big sponsor if they could get into the Champions League?
If Villa got a sponsor for £10 million a year say and this enabled them to get into the Champions League it could increase it so £20-£30 million a season.
Nice to see that life and can take precedence over money sometimes though!
Posted by Steven Jones | 24 March, 2010, 00:21Their chances of getting into the CL are slim so I guess we’ll never know! Since Randy Lerner took over at Villa he’s done a lot to instil certain values in the club and strengthen ties with the local community. This sponsorship deal is part of that I think.
Posted by Geoff Edwards | 24 March, 2010, 15:29Re. Aston Villa.
As former Champions of Europe I would suggest Villa have as good a chance as any of competing in The Champions’League.
Posted by Macca | 23 April, 2010, 23:59