Prosperous Thanks to the Good Management of the Leagues
A total of 11 clubs in the Premier League are on the list of 20 most-prosperous clubs in the universe. The leagues which were left behind due to the actions of supporters are now shooting thanks to good management steps.
By
MUHAMMAD IKHSAN MAHAR
·7 minutes read
AP PHOTO/DAVE THOMPSON
Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez, second right, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's third goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. City is the top club in the Football Money League or the highest revenue for the 2021-2022 season according to Deloitte.
LONDON, THURSDAY — Professional management through consistent rules and systems is the capital by which the English League manages to be the best soccer competition in the world. In addition to increasing competitiveness, British clubs have achieved financial prosperity, which is very difficult for other European representatives to match.
When the majority of European soccer competitions were snared by a financial crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the English League clubs are able to avoid funding problems. Their clubs recover fastest and re-score a new record value of income.
The financial dominance of the English League clubs was shown by Deloitte, an international financial firm, in the Money League 2023 report released on Thursday (19/1/2023). For the first time in history, more than half of the clubs on the list of 20 clubs with the highest income in the world came from one country, namely England. A total of 11 English clubs entered the list of the most-prosperous clubs in the 2021-2022 season.
Clubs in the top six of the English League last season, namely Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester United, are even included in the top-10 most-prosperous teams, according to Money League 2023. The top position is occupied by City.
Investment that runs in the English League has increased the global attraction and significant broadcast-rights growth.
In fact, three and a half decades ago, the Premier League slumped and was less popular, especially in the Italian League. Like in Indonesia, the Premier League had been "held hostage” by the hooliganism of supporters. Football was at its lowest point there after the Hills Borough stadium tragedy that killed 97 supporters in April 1989.
The tragedy triggered massive improvement, especially supporter regulations. One example is the soccer supporter law, issued by the British Parliament in 1989.
The law has an impact on modernization, namely the implementation of a system of identification of spectators and single seats at the stadium. So, the troublemaker supporters can be directly dealt with, and the stadium is even more modern.
Gradually, a conducive soccer climate there allows foreign funds to flow more. The foreign investment was regulated by the local government so that it could truly improve the welfare of the clubs. Of the 20 English Premier League contestants this season, 15 of them are owned by foreign investors.
"Investment that runs in the English League has increased the global attraction and significant broadcast-rights growth. Other leagues are now trying to close the gap [financial] with the English League," said assistant director of Deloitte Sports Business Group Zal Udwa as quoted by The Guardian.
Deloitte Money League Top Ten 2023 infographic. (Euro million revenue)
Not only Deloitte, Brand Finance, an independent Jenama Assessment consultant, also showed the dominance of English clubs. In the report "Football 50, 2022", six English clubs were included in the list of the top 10 of the most-valuable football leagues. They are City (second position), Liverpool (4), MU (5), Spurs (8), Chelsea (9) and Arsenal (10).
City's success in maintaining its position at the top of Money League, namely with an income of 731 million euros (US$792.54 million), was influenced by its commercial income, which rose significantly. The club's cooperation value with four sponsors, namely Etihad Airways, Nexen Tire, Cisco and Nissan, rose dramatically.
In addition, during 2021-2022, City underwent new global partnerships with other Jenama, such as OKX, Emirates Palace, Asahi Super Dry, Aldar Proper Ties, Sony, Masdar, Qualtrics, Recast and Wework. As a result, the club nicknamed "The Citizens" received 373 million euros from sponsors, or up 51 percent compared to the previous season, namely 2020-2021.
Our strong income performance is caused by several factors, especially influenced by the beautiful football that we play and the growth of the number of fans.
In the financial statements of the 2021-2022 season, which was released last November, City also recorded the highest revenue and profit record in history. The majority shares of the club are owned by the Arab Emirates Consortium. City's revenue for that period was 613 million pounds sterling (US$759.51 million), while profit was 41.7 million pounds.
"Our strong income performance is caused by several factors, especially influenced by the beautiful football that we play and the growth of the number of fans. More supporters, spectators and people at the stadium are also more partners who want to be commercially associated with us," Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano said as quoted in the club’s website.
Meanwhile, Liverpool, which broke through the European Champions League final last season, showed the highest increase in financial ranking. It jumped from seventh to third place in the Money League 2023. The highest income of the "Red" came from broadcasting rights of 314 million euros. The increase in broadcasting rights is inextricably linked to their consistent work in the European club competition.
Manchester United is ranked fourth, while the trio of London clubs, namely Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal, are in the eighth to 10th positions. Arsenal returned to the top 10 of the prosperous-club list by getting rid of Juventus. The last time Arsenal featured on the list of the top-10 Money League was in 2019.
DELOITTE
Ranked 11th to 20th in the 2013 Football Money League by Deloitte.
The rapid surge in the number of British representatives is seen in the first edition of the Money League report in 2006. At that time, there were only eight English League clubs on the top-20 list. The United Kingdom is the only country that has been able to increase the number of representatives on the list of the top 20 in the world since then.
"Now, if the ranking is expanded to the top 30, there are 16 British teams on the list. It is only a matter of time before the 20 English Premier League teams are included in the top-30 list," said Udwadia.
Two other prestigious leagues, the Spanish League and the German League, have not experienced an increase in the number of clubs on the list of the top 20 since 2006. The two leagues only place three and two representatives, respectively, in the latest report.
The Spanish League places Real Madrid (second place), Barcelona (seventh) and Atletico Madrid (12th) on the list. President of La Liga (Spanish League Operator) Javier Tebas assessed that clubs in other European Leagues have difficulty in matching the financial clout of the English League clubs.
Competition revolution
According to Tebas, the British dominance is linked to the country's soccer competition revolution, which began in 1992 after the issuance of the soccer supporter law. The revolution was fully supported by the British government, which at that time believed football could become a giant industry.
"For example, in terms of the structure of the competition and stadium, I think we in Spain can only be equivalent to the current British achievement in the next four to six years," Tebas told Marca.
"They [the English clubs] are also very dominant in the player-transfer market because they are funded by their owners and are allowed to buy players [new] even though they are experiencing losses [financial]," said Tebas.
As opposed to England, the representatives of the Italian League in the Money League continue to decline dramatically. In the latest report, there are only three clubs from that country that entered the top 20. In 2006, they were still represented by five teams. At present, none of the Italian clubs even enter the top 10.
For the first time in the last decade, the representative of Italy, namely Juventus, was thrown out from the "elite" zone. Andrea Agnelli, a former Juve president, is pessimistic that the Italian club can pursue financial disparity with the English clubs. In his resignation speech from the top position of the executive at Juve, on Wednesday (18/1), in Turin, Italy, Agnelli assessed that financial equality could only be created if there were significant changes in European club competitions, such as running the European Super League.
"If there is no reform of the structure of competition in Europe, other leagues will experience an inevitable decline in attraction. The Premier League will be increasingly dominant," Agnelli said as quoted by Tuttosport.
