By Paul Nicholson
October 2 – The latest report from Benchmark Sports, the data division of consultants KPMG Sports, compares the popularity of Europe’s biggest football clubs with global fashion brands and finds that while the clubs may be the most popular, the fashion brands have the most money.
The research found that the ten most followed European football clubs had more than 436 million followers in aggregate on Facebook and, together generated approximately €4.2 billion in revenue in the 2013/14 season.
In comparison, French fashion house LVMH had revenues in excess of €11 billion in 2014 – 2.6 times more than the aggregate of the top ten football clubs in Europe. As one of the most followed fashion houses, LVMH has about 39 million Facebook followers.
In aggregate the ten most followed fashion houses on Facebook have about 160 million followers, less than the combined number for Cristiano Ronaldo (106.4 million) and for Lionel Messi (80.4 million).
So the obvious question is whether clubs are under performing in terms of revenue, or are fashion houses over performing? While the study admits it is not comparing apples with apples in its research, the question remains nevertheless.
Andrea Sartori, KPMG Global Head of Sport, said: “Some interesting questions arise as to whether and how football clubs can better leverage their global followings to generate additional commercial revenue, for instance through exploiting opportunities around: Higher yields from online purchasing; Retail activities outside of their respective home countries; Partnerships and sponsorships; and Image rights.
“The club that can unlock this opportunity may be able to create competitive advantages for themselves.”
Source: Football Benchmark
For more information go to https://www.footballbenchmark.com/how_does_the_popularity_of_major_football_clubs_compare_with_global_fashion_brands
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