Market Trends of Football Clubs Industry
Rising Active Participation in Football Leagues
The growing health consciousness among consumers is leading to the need to follow a healthier lifestyle. Consumers are engaged in several sports activities to maintain their health. The majority prefer outdoor games, such as football, as these outdoor sports activities require significant physical effort, thus enhancing the stamina levels of the players. Football also helps keep the body strong, flexible, and fit. It can also help avoid several health diseases and increase the mental stability of individuals. Therefore, being a complete workout package, the game is becoming popular among athletes, cricketers, and others. Moreover, government initiatives to promote football events are boosting people's interest in playing the sport, such as the FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022 was set to boost people's interest in the country. Such factors are driving the sales of football worldwide.
Additionally, an independent identity, FIFA Foundation promotes football to accomplish its social responsibility through its various programs, such as Foundation Community Programme, Recovery Programme, FIFA Legends Programme, Football for Schools Programme, Campus Programme, Refugee Programme, and Employee Volunteer Programme. In the post-COVID-19 world, the FIFA Foundation is using football to help reconnect society, promote and support mental health awareness, and help empower and inspire people to participate in football for a healthy mind and body. This, in turn, is increasing the football participation rate across the globe and aiding the growth of the global football market.
Revenue From Football Club
A football club’s revenues can be broken down broadly into three overarching categories — commercial, broadcast, and matchday. While broadcast revenues are mostly dependent on the auction of TV rights, matchday revenues (ticket sales) are generally constrained by the capacity of a club’s stadium. Commercial revenues, therefore, become crucial for a club’s financial performance. However, over the past five years, broadcast revenues have increasingly become more important, primarily due to leagues striking lucrative TV deals and the increasing payouts by UEFA for teams competing in the Champions League. While commercial revenues are crucial, not all clubs have the ability to leverage their brand. Top clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have a massive international profile; therefore, they have great potential to raise money from merchandise sales, promotions, and sponsorship. Even among the top 20 clubs, there are wide disparities. For instance, Barcelona’s revenue from commercial operations is €20 million more than La Liga rival Atletico Madrid’s entire revenue for the 2018-19 season.
