I am a huge sports fan, I tend to follow most sports but have a greater passion for Football, the biggest sport on the planet as well as now being big big business. The Premier League
The English premier league is probably the most richest league in the world, most definitely in Europe. Since the formation of the Premier League in 1992/1993 season there has only ever been four winners, Manchester United 10 times, Arsenal 3 times, Chelsea twice and Blackburn once.
The premier league became rich mainly due to television revenue, money put into it by SKY TV, a satellite television company, this took the game away from terrestrial TV. There was a huge demand for live football on TV and SKY captured the market and made it their own. This has now changed, there is no longer the domination by SKY due to new regulations. The rights for the premiership has been sold all over the world and no matter where you go you will see young children wearing replica shirts of their favourite premiership teams.
There has been talk of there being a break away group which they are calling the big four, since 2003/2004 season the top four has been the same, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, just the positions have changed at the end of the season. Why have these four clubs been so dominant? The top four can attract any palyer they want, they have the financial backing and therby keep strengthening their team season after season. However, it's not simply about buying new players all the time, it is the team, the coach and new players to improve on the previous season.
The Wealthy Clubs
The top four as described above are the wealthiest clubs in England and represent a majority in Europe and the world, the top four premiership clubs occupy 4 of the top 10 spots, English clubs have a high representation in the overall top 25, see below:
This is a list of the richest football clubs in the world in April 2008 as ranked by Forbes magazine on their worth in US dollars.[1]
Rank Team Country Value ($m)[2] Debt as
%of value[3] % change
on year Revenue ($m) Operating
income($m)[4]
1 Manchester United England 1,800 60 24 394 111
2 Real Madrid Spain 1,285 27 24 474 112
3 Arsenal England 1,200 43 31 329 77
4 Liverpool England 1,050 65 131 269 60
5 Bayern Munich Germany 917 0 9 302 72
6 AC Milan Italy 798 0 -3 307 54
7 FC Barcelona Spain 784 7 47 392 92
8 Chelsea England 764 0 42 382 -5
9 Juventus Italy 510 5 -10 196 35
10 Schalke 04 Germany 470 48 0 154 36
11 AS Roma Italy 434 12 94 213 48
12 Tottenham Hotspur England 414 15 70 207 64
13 Olympique Lyonnais France 408 7 19 190 15
14 Internazionale Italy 403 0 -27 207 21
15 Borussia Dortmund Germany 323 57 63 122 31
16 Newcastle United England 300 43 16 175 12
17 Hamburger SV Germany 293 0 32 163 41
18 Werder Bremen Germany 262 0 n/a 131 11
19 Valencia Spain 254 159 31 145 -45
20 Celtic Scotland 227 11 23 151 48
21 Everton England 197 30 24 103 -1
22 West Ham United England 195 23 25 115 -22
23 Manchester City England 191 63 -8 114 27
24 Aston Villa England 190 12 36 106 -40
25 Olympique Marseille France 187 0 19 134 13
Deloitte Football Money League
List of Premier League football club owners
Notes
Soccer Team Valuations
Estimated by Forbes based on past transactions, market value, debt and stadium.
Includes stadium debt
Revenue before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
There is now a new player in the game, most recently Manchester City changed ownership and is now reportedly the richest club in the world, taking over the mantle from Chelsea, they are now owned by a Sheik from the emirate state of Abu Dhabi.
Manchester City have already flexed their financial muscle by spending heavily on players during the Transfer window.
Foreign Investment
The premier league as far as I am aware is the only league which has a foreign investment in terms of club ownership. There many foreign players here and high percentage of players make up the first eleven whereas in the other European leagues majority of the first team is made up of indigenous players. I think this is good for the clubs but probably has an overall detriment to the fortunes of the national team.
There are a number of clubs who now have rich foreign owners, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are all benefiting from foreign ownership, and now we are seeing the other Manchester club gatecrashing the party.
There is talk that due to the investment in these clubs it is an unfair advantage to the smaller lesser known clubs as they cannot compete with the big boys, they cannot attract the best players from around the world, they cannot afford either the transfer fee or players wage demands. This is true and there is a gulf developing, however, the smaller clubs can do better by better management on and of the field. It has been shown that a smaller team with less money can succeed, Portuguese club Porto, French club Monaco both proved with good management on the field all is possible.
As football has become big industry, the clubs can and should be run as a business, a well run club can survive and compete at a high level, the model used by the Dutch club Ajax worked very well for a very very long time, they were producing many local young players who were sold onto bigger leagues around Europe, the club was still able to compete with the so called the power leagues like "La Liga in spain" and "Serie A in Italy" to win the Champions League (European Cup). Why has Ajax the club other clubs were looking to emulate, gone backwards?
I think that foreign investment is good, as long as everyone is playing on a level playing field. The investment has to be for a long term strategy, and should include the development of the academy. Not just set it up and leave it to rot. Take proactive action to build and sustain it for the future.
I also feel that there should some form of salary structure or cap and a sensible price tags on players, this will help the clubs to operate like a business by re-investing back into the club after paying the players salaries and overheads etc., the profits will go into maintaining the academy. The structure will allow clubs to make better use players from the academy, at the moment I feel Arsenal are the only club trying to run a club the way I think it should be run. This would stop the smaller clubs getting into financial difficulties.
This intel first appeared on: http://www.zenhealthblog.com
