"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Globalization has affected football in many ways, not always ways that fans like. In England today, fans are demonstrating at what they see as excessively high ticket prices at Premier League matches with clubs having made an overall profit for the first time in 15 years. A global labour market has certainly emerged and there has been foreign direct investment in clubs.
We live in an era in which the brand is everything. Nothing is more integral to a club’s brand than its name. Name changes occur very rarely, if only because supporters resent them.
There are three main sets of circumstances in which a name change occurs. One is when a club moves. When Arsenal moved north of the river it no longer made any sense to call them Woolwich Arsenal. More controversially, when the Wimbledon ‘franchise’ was acquired for Milton Keynes, the new club took the name MK Dons.
Chelsea have secured the second biggest shirt sponsorship deal in English football history. They have agreed a contract worth £40m a year with the Yokohama Rubber Company to start next season. The club regards it as another important step towards being self-financing and compliant with financial fair play rules.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeou has claimed in an interview with the Financial Times weekend magazine that Barcelona are in the best economic position in their history. Annual revenues have tripled in a decade to €530m. Only Real Madrid does better with €604m.
Barca probably have the lowest average ticket prices of any of the top 15 clubs in Europe. However, after eschewing commercial shirt sponsorships for many years, it is now highly reliant on the €30m a year it gets from its Qatari shirt sponsor.
Wonga is to end its shirt sponsorship at Blackpool after five years. The Championship strugglers may not find it easy to attract a new sponsor.
The payday lending sector has been hit hard by a tightening of regulations, although, as a market leader Wonga is expected to survive while other firms cease trading. Its sponsorship of Newcastle United will continue, although its name is being removed from children’s kits.
West Ham’s sponsors Alpari have gone bust after turmoil in the foreign exchange markets following a change of policy on the Swiss franc. They sponsored both the shirts and one of the main stands in a deal worth £3m a year.
Cardiff City fans have won their battle to revert to their traditional blue colours, owner Vincent Tan having finally seen sense. He re-branded the club in red kit because he thought that it would increase the club’s appeal in global markets.
Making Cardiff City a global brand was always going to be a big ask. Playing them in a red kit was never going to make that much difference. It was a bad marketing ploy which damaged the relationship with fans. The Bluebirds were rewarded for the change with their second highest attendance of the season yesterday.
This article takes an in depth look at the state of women’s football in England, including its history and a comparison with the fully professional league in the United States.
The Football Association aims to make it the second most popular sport in the UK. There is quite a long way to go, certainly in terms of attendances. They are comparable with those of non-league teams and, indeed, most matches are played in non-league stadiums.
Manchester United are seeking to boost their already considerable commercial income, forecast to pass the £200m mark this year, by taking full advantage of their new kit contract with adidas.
The contract kicks in next summer and will guarantee United a minimum of £75m annually over the next ten years, three times the base value of the Nike arrangement. Moreover, the club have negotiated a deal that will allow them to retain the licensing rights to all items apart from signature items such as replica kits and training gear.
Manchester United are interested in having sponsorship on the back of replica shirts. At present it is allowed in the FA Cup but not in the Premiership.
However, the other Premier League clubs are opposed to the idea. They think that there is a risk of diluting the impact of a club’s main shirt sponsor. They also do not want football players to look like Formula One drivers who often have sponsorship logos all over their kit.