Spanish Clubs Top Value Table - 10/10/2007

A survey by BBDO consulting has calculated the 'brand value' of Europe's football clubs and the top two places have been taken by Spain. Although the values are little more than a marketing exercise, they demonstrate what the accountants think. Real Madrid are top, valued at a shade more than €1 billon with Barcelona second at €948 million. Manchester United are third with a notional value of €922m, followed by Chelsea at €828m, although these calculations were made before José Mourinho left. Arsenal come in eighth at €712m and Liverpool are tenth, with their brand value calculated at €645m.

Clash Over Football Broadcasting Rights in Spain

A row has broken out between two media companies that claim the broadcasting rights to the Spanish premier league, La Liga. Sogecable, a listed media group that owns the rights to 12 of the 20 first division teams, says it will block rival Imagina, which owns the rights to the eight remaining teams, from entering stadiums to transmit the football matches to its clients. These are mainly regional television stations and foreign broadcasters. Sogecable and Imagina accuse each other of breaking a contract in which they agreed to share the broadcasting rights to premier league matches. The dispute is in the courts, but given the slow pace of Spanish justice, it could be years before a judge settles the case. If the dispute drags on, it could hurt Sogecable's bottom line, as football is the main reason 2m Spainards are are signed up for Digital Plus, its pay television platform. The pay television subscriptions are worth more than €1bn a year to Sogecable, and account for about 60 per cent of the group's rebeues. Sogecable is modestly profitable.

Sports business analysts think that Imagina could seriously damage Sogecable's business model. The upstart company holds the rights to 12 football companies for the next season, including Real Madrid and Barcelona. Some analysts believe that the duopolistic rivals are condemned to do business with each other, but they deny that they need a working relationship. Sogecable has accused Imagina of inflating the price of football transmission rights, but says that in the worst case scenario it will only lose the exclusive rights to one match a week. Imagina has shareholders with deep pockets. Torreal, an investment company owned by Juabn Abelió, a Spanish billionaire, took a 20 per cent stake in Imagina in March. WPP, the international advertising group, owns 20 per cent.

Spanish Clubs Splash Out on Transfers

Europe's top leagues have spent £1bn on transfers over three months in the summer. Half of that sum involves the English Premiership. However, the £51m spent by Manchester United, the top spending English club, fell well short of the £80m splashed out by Real Madrid. Barcelona spent close to £50m and Athletico Madrid spent a similar amount. However, looking at Spain's Primera Liga as a whole, spending on transfers is about half the amount spent in the English Premiership. Alan Switzer of Deloitte's Sports Business Group commented that Real Madrid and Barcelona had the highest revenues in football last year. Both clubs will get about £100m per season from broadcast revenues in 2008-9, twice the amount top clubs in the English Premiership can expect.