Why Football Is Bad Business

football is a beautiful sport that

brings in billions of dollars every year

as the world's most popular sport

there's been no shortage of controversy

with the World Cup underway in Qatar the

tournament has renewed attention on the

governing bodies behind football that

have dodged corruption and bribery

charges for decades but the average fan

isn't directly exposed to FIFA or UEFA

instead most people learn and follow

football at the player and Team level

through European clubs like Liverpool

and Manchester City and England Juventus

and AC Milan in Italy or Barcelona and

Real Madrid and Spain

it's these private clubs that make the

spectacle of football possible on the

outside the biggest football club seem

wildly successful they win trophies they

pay high salaries they play on the

biggest stages and they sign the best

talent possible every transfer window

that success appears to carry over

commercially where these leading

football clubs are international brands

with loyal fan bases who religiously

spend thousands every year on

merchandise tickets and jerseys that

aren't even designed to be reworn after

a single game and it's not just bodies

at the stadium these clubs make millions

more through sponsorships television

rights and competition prize money as

these clubs achieve success on the field

their brands off the field get stronger

which grows their overall fan base and

then fuels their monetization and

revenue through tickets membership and

merchandise the business of football

clubs seems simple enough and with so

many famous Elite clubs all over Europe

This flywheel must work but in reality

football clubs are businesses that are

barely cash flow positive unprofitable

and they continuously bankrupt

themselves in order to sustain their on

the field success they all cling to the

hope that if they keep winning money

will materialize in the future to offset

their costs today or these clubs

intentionally operate at losses year

over year with a goal of one day

flipping the team for billions in

appreciation

the reality is that whether they're run

by corporations or Saudi sheikhs a

successful football club simply put is

an unprofitable one in this episode

we'll look at the problematic business

of football clubs through the financials

of Manchester United Juventus and

Barcelona and how it's only a matter of

time before every successful football

club is run by a rich oligarch looking

for their latest passion project

England is the most developed and

lucrative football market today the

English Premier League considered to be

the most competitive and the highest

level of professional football is the

most watched Sports league around the

world the Premier League is broadcasted

to over 200 countries and watched by

over 3 billion people every year which

puts it at the same mark As the World

Cup the difference is that the World Cup

is an International Tournament played

once every four years whereas the

Premier League occurs every year in

England in comparison the Super Bowl the

biggest most visible Global event in

American Sports pulls in 100 million

viewers the high viewership of the

Premier League not only drives brand

interest but also attracts talented

players who naturally want to play on

the biggest stages and be paid top

salaries as direct beneficiaries from

all that ad spend

within the Premier League are many

successful clubs who all have their own

history stadiums and famous players like

Arsenal Chelsea and Liverpool but there

is no English Club more iconic than

Manchester United

in the past 13 years Manchester United

has aggressively seized every

opportunity to generate as much money as

possible even at the expense of its team

investors not fans are the priority for

Manchester United and the club has

rewarded its owners and investors with

tens of millions of dividends every year

even as the team has underperformed and

struggled on the pitch as long as money

keeps flowing in the ownership and

management don't seem to mind how poor

the team is playing fans critics and

former coaches have called out

Manchester United as a commercial Club

rather than a football club and for this

very reason Manchester United provides a

fascinating look into the ceiling or

best case scenario of how far football

clubs can go with their business model

Manchester United is one of the most

valuable football clubs in the world and

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2012. to this day it is one of the few

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Manchester United has nailed the

flywheel tripling the club's revenue

from 280 million pounds in 2009 to

almost 600 million pounds in 2022 for

football clubs there are three core

income streams the first is Match Day

Revenue which is money that comes from

the tickets food and drinks sold at home

games Match Day revenue for any club is

a function of the number of games played

at home the number of seats that are

filled along with the price of tickets

and concessions the better the team

plays the more people willing to attend

games and the higher the ticket prices

get historically football clubs have

been reliant on home games gate receipts

and Concession sales in order to

generate cash flow through the 2000s

clubs are always looking for ways to

either upgrade their Stadium experience

to justify price increases or increase

seating capacity to bring in more fans

and more money

but as we can see through Manchester

United's financials Match Day Revenue

has become less significant over time in

2009 and 2010 matchday sales made up 41

and 37 percent of Manchester United's

Revenue fast forward to the early 2020s

and match day Revenue contributes less

than 20 percent of Revenue while the

other two income streams have grown

Match Day Revenue has understandably

stagnated never going over 114 million

pounds or below 90 million pounds in a

single season but that's not for lack of

trying Manchester United has actually

the second largest stadium in England

with a seating capacity for 70 000

people

broadcast revenue on the other hand has

grown consistently as streaming and

television have made things only more

lucrative over time for the clubs in the

Premier League as television viewership

has grown Advertiser bids have also

intensified and broadcast Revenue

overall has doubled going from 100

million pounds in 2009 to bring in 250

million pounds by 2022 for Manchester

United it's the league Administration

who negotiates the broadcast revenue on

behalf of all the clubs that play in the

Premier League TV networks bid every

year for the rights to broadcast Premier

League games and the league naturally

defaults to the highest bidder Sky one

of England's largest networks paid 2.3

billion pounds in 2013 for the rights to

broadcast 116 Premier League games in a

single season eight years later in 2021

sky is now paying 3.75 billion pounds to

broadcast 128 Premier League games while

there's Nuance in how the broadcast

revenue is split amongst all the teams

within the Premier League it mostly

comes down to just staying in the league

as long as the club and team isn't

losing so many games as relegated to a

lower division every Club in the Premier

League including Manchester United is

guaranteed a slice of the broadcast pie

broadcast Revenue alone has accounted

for 34 percent of Manchester United's

Revenue since the late 2000s

commercial revenue is where Manchester

United has executed heads and shoulders

above any other club in the world

commercial revenue is revenue that's

generated from limited time agreements

that Manchester United as a club enters

in privately with a separate company in

exchange for cash Manchester United will

allow this brand to associate itself

with the club even if their Industries

aren't related so whether it's promoting

an airline a beverage a car or watch

Manchester United will do it for a price

and brands are also willing to pay the

club with the belief that this increased

visibility and Association will Elevate

their own image and sales commercial

Revenue has been Manchester United's

fastest growing revenue quadrupling from

65 million pounds in 2009 to 260 million

pounds by 2022 commercial Revenue used

to account for only 24 percent of

Revenue 13 years ago and now accounts

for 44 of the club's Revenue the most

visible spot is the Jersey from 2000 to

2006 Vodafone paid out 8 million pounds

every year to Manchester United to

sponsor the team's jerseys AI IG then

paid out 14 million pounds a year for

the next three years once that deal

expired aeon shelled out 90 million

pounds across four years to be the

latest sponsor for Manchester United

General Motors then sign on to be the

next Jersey sponsor in 2014 paying out

70 million dollars in their first year

to Manchester United and then increasing

their payments by 2.1 percent every year

to the club for the next eight years

Manchester United has ruthlessly

monetized every bit of real estate we're

not just the training Jersey and the

game Jersey have their own sponsors but

also the sleeve of the jerseys a

practice that the club popularized back

in 2009 Manchester United signed

Blockbuster commercial deals with not

only Jersey sponsors but they've also

done so with suppliers when Arsenal

announced an eye-popping five-year 150

million pound deal with Puma for Puma to

be the exclusive producers of their

jerseys back in 2014 Manchester United

blew that record out the water months

later with a historic deal where Adidas

would pay the club 750 million pounds

over 10 years

in football any space that can fit a

logo is available at a price but its

credit to Manchester United how the club

has been able to consistently stir up

bidding wars and close Landmark deals

every time walking away multiple times

richer than before the second layer here

is that sponsors can be geographically

segmented which allows the same atom or

pixel to be monetized multiple times

once at the global level and then once

again at the regions in 2009 you

wouldn't find Saudi Telecom Smirnoff

Honda or Telecom Asia associated with

Manchester United in the west but in the

East you would have seen those

sponsorships in those markets

in 2009 Manchester United had 12 major

Global sponsors and half a dozen

Regional sponsors fast forward to 2022

Manchester United today boasts over 20

Global sponsors and dozens of regional

sponsors in Industries as diverse as

wine bathroom fixtures and crackers in

the late 2000s there was some rationale

as to why Brands would be so eager to

throw so much money at this particular

football club at the time Manchester

United was unrivaled as the most

successful English Club of all time

having won the Premier League a record

12 times and having never finished lower

than third place in a single season

Manchester United's popularity over the

decades wasn't just because of its

winning results under coach Sir Alex

Ferguson but also due to the world-class

Talent at Harvard like David Beckham

Ryan Giggs Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne

Rooney many of these famous players

started out as unproven homegrown

teenagers who were nurtured and

developed into Superstars at Manchester

United this strengthens the club's 4

which then in turn drives Brands to

commit boatloads of money under the

belief that the club will continue to

dominate on and off the field for

generations to come

the reason why Manchester United and

football clubs in general love

commercial Revenue so much is because

these deals are huge predictable

guaranteed payouts that are locked in

for multiple years compared to match day

revenue or broadcast Revenue Manchester

United incurs no variable costs or

overhead to collect commercial Revenue

once the deal is signed and agreed

beyond that upfront legal cost the money

just comes flowing in at high margins

regardless of how the team actually

performs on the field

over the years Manchester United's on

the field product has actually gotten

worse and worse with the team finishing

outside of the top four in the Premier

League five times out of the past 10

years if we Mark the years where

Manchester United was at its least

competitive and the team netted its

worst results there was no loss to

commercial Revenue as the payouts still

continued to flow in in 2013 Manchester

United finished seventh place in the

Premier League its worst ever domestic

placement and was criticized for playing

uninspiring football yet in the same

year the club's commercial Revenue

skyrocketed from 120 million pounds to

152 million pounds in 2015 and 2016 even

when fans lashed out at the poor play

and the club finished fifth and sixth

place in back-to-back years commercial

Revenue still grew growing from 195

million pounds to 268 million pounds

thanks to its Blockbuster deal with

Adidas TeamViewer is now Manchester

United's latest Jersey sponsor after

signing a five-year 230 35 million pound

agreement in 2021 but even as TeamViewer

stock has crashed and its company

Executives have revolted and spoken out

against the sponsorship deal as an

unnecessary expense the German software

company is actually stuck they're unable

to pull out of the sponsorship deal from

Manchester United who's a football club

that has every intention to collect no

matter how poorly the team might be

playing or how bad the finances are for

its sponsor despite the growth in

broadcasts and Commercial Revenue even

if we add up all the sponsorship deals

the 10 years at 750 million pounds the

five years at 235 million pounds along

with all the sales web jerseys tickets

merchandise all of those combined are

still not enough to pay for player

salaries the biggest operating expense

for every football club is player

salaries while commercial Revenue has

grown 12 percent year over year player

salaries have actually grown in line and

at a higher basis over the same time

frame even with Adidas TeamViewer and a

24 million pound a year training Jersey

sponsor commercial Revenue alone is not

enough to offset the cost of players

salaries

Manchester United doesn't have to win

everything but they also can't afford to

be uncompetitive if the club loses fans

to the point that they stop attending

and watching the games Brands will

notice and the lesson of Premium they'll

be willing to pay for sponsorships even

a big Club Can't Hide empty seats and

stands or negative support sentiment for

too long and if a club keeps losing

their only real solution is to improve

the on the field product by growing or

buying Talent

but where players ultimately come from

make little difference in this overall

equation even if the team develops its

own talent that player will one day

demand the same top salaries as his

peers and the club will generally give

in to make the player happy to keep the

fans satisfied and to maintain an

attractive on-the-field product for

sponsors the ever-increasing operating

expense of player compensation is

unavoidable and often overlooked in this

Revenue flywheel

Manchester United's bottom line exposes

just how tight and volatile the margins

are for football clubs Manchester

United's operating margin for the past

13 years hovers on average at nine

percent with a median of 12 percent its

actual profit margin over the same time

frame sits on average at 0.68 percent

with a median of two percent even if we

omit the covid year of 2020 where Match

Day Revenue went down to zero because

fans weren't able to attend the games

the average profit margin improves but

barely to two percent on average with a

median of three percent

even the most successful football club

in England is a low margin business

that's trapped in this never-ending

cycle where cash must be constantly

reinvested back into the players to keep

the team and product competitive without

a competitive team on the field an

attractive product commercial Revenue

can't be sustained without expensive

Stadium Renovations and expansions Match

Day revenue is capped out as an income

stream and broadcast Revenue while it's

growing is still a ration slice of a

shared pie

if we travel down south going from the

most successful Club in English football

to the most successful Club in Italian

football in Juventus the same

problematic business model appears Syria

ah the highest level of professional

football in Italy is well known but it

doesn't command the same International

popularity and Global viewership as the

Premier League as a result broadcast

revenue is comparably lower for Italian

clubs like Juventus as their TV rights

just aren't worth as much while

broadcast Revenue doesn't reach the same

Heights for Juventus as it does with

Manchester United it still accounts for

nearly half of the club's Revenue since

the late 2000s Juventus Stadium is also

smaller than that of Manchester United

with seating capacity for 40 000 fans

with Less Butts and seats matchday

revenue for Juventus since 2009

contributes on average just 10 percent

of the club's Revenue Juventus has

followed Manchester United's playbook in

making high margin commercial Revenue

its priority and also its fastest grow

growing income stream commercial revenue

for Juventus has quadrupled from 21 of

Revenue in 2009 at 46 million euros to

nearly 40 percent of Revenue in 2021 at

nearly 170 million euros Juventus is an

internationally recognized club that has

won the most titles of any Italian Club

yet it has never reached the Continental

success Global appeal and off the field

stardom of elite clubs like Real Madrid

and Liverpool

as a club Juventus has limited earnings

potential simply by playing in Syria ah

a league that has less popularity and

less viewership than the Premier League

to get Syria awe closer to the level of

the Premier League would require many

changes Italian clubs would need to

collectively become more competitive

they would need to attract and field

world-class players to pull in viewers

and they would have to pay salaries on

par or above with the Premier League

it's a chicken or the egg problem for

the non-english football leagues that

want to get to the lucrative levels of

the Premier League these leagues simply

can't make more money unless they grow

their viewership but viewers won't come

unless all the clubs in the league

proactively spend more money on better

players to improve their on the field

product collectively you have to invest

before you can make more but it's not an

easy thing to convince 20 different

teams in a league as most of those

owners will probably feel like they've

already put in far too much money into

their football clubs for too low of a

return to do even more

juventus's commercial potential has long

been constrained by its league and its

commercial revenue stagnated from 2009

to 2014 but its continuous domestic

success did pay off when Adidas came

knocking in 2015 offering a six-year 140

million euro deal to replace Nike as

their Jersey supplier the club's

commercial Revenue skyrocketed 50

percent that same year yet juventus's

management would make its biggest bet

yet to grow commercial Revenue just

three years later in 2018 when the club

paid 116 million euros to acquire

Cristiano Ronaldo while Ronaldo was

passed his best as a 33 year old at the

time the idea was that this Legendary

player with global appeal would be as

much a commercial investment as it was a

sporting acquisition

Ronaldo was seen as a game changer both

on the field and off the field as his

presence would bring not just more fans

greater jersey sales more success in the

Champions League more viewers to Syria

ah but also Elevate the club's image and

appeal to sponsors and unlock even

greater commercial Revenue

in Ronaldo's first year commercial

revenue for Juventus grew 35 percent in

2018. months after his arrival Adidas

Revisited their deal with improved terms

for the club paying Juventus 360 million

euros across seven years which was

double the value of the initial deal

they signed back in 2015. Jeep also

re-upped their Jersey sponsorship with

Ronaldo's arrival increasing their

annual payments to the club from 17

million to 45 million euros both

commercial revenue and match day Revenue

grew in the three seasons that Ronaldo

played at Juventus from 2018 to 2020 as

fans flocked to the stadium to watch the

Superstar

yet Ronaldo came at a cost that Juventus

to this day has never been able to

recover from the club essentially

bankrupt itself in order to bring

Ronaldo in and since covid the Italian

Club has posted larger and larger losses

Ronaldo's annual salary was 60 million

Euros which single-handedly drove up

total player compensation by 30 percent

as its own operating expense

to put into perspective as one

individual in a team sport that requires

11 players on the field Ronaldo was paid

more in a season than what Adidas or

Jeep pay Juventus in a single year

Juventus has had to rely on Capital

injections from its parent company to

keep the lights on and the team

competitive in Ronaldo's departure cash

is hard to come by for the Italian

football club but it's easy to come by

for its parent company exor a

multi-billion dollar holding company

that has Ferrari and Christian Louboutin

in his portfolio unsurprisingly Juventus

is now the subject of a criminal

investigation for false accounting

prosecutors allege that Juventus losses

are significantly greater than what

they've been reporting rumors are that

Juventus issued payments under the table

to players so that their salaries

wouldn't look so high on the books the

club also allegedly inflated the values

of the players that it sold over the

years in order to make the overall

business look much healthier than what

it really was this particular accounting

problem doesn't exist at Manchester

United because the English Club doesn't

count player sales as Revenue with a

problematic business model made even

more Fragile with a generational bet in

Cristiano Ronaldo it's not difficult to

imagine how juventus's losses in 2021

the most money ever lost by an Italian

Club in the history of the sport is

actually greater than the 250 million

euros that was reported

when a club regularly buys world-class

players to maintain their on-the-field

success and drive Revenue that Talent

generally comes at such a cost that no

amount of sponsorships and Commercial

deals can offset if we travel up north

from Italy to Spain there is one team

that has followed this Playbook to such

an extreme that it's now on the edge of

financial collapse Barcelona one of the

most decorated football clubs in the

world has lived Beyond its means for

many years yet the club is now at a

point where it's sold off 25 years of

its future broadcasting revenue and

other businesses to anyone who will pay

in order to generate cash and finance

player salaries Barcelona's Top Line is

most similar to Manchester United match

day Revenue has contributed on average

20 percent of the club's Revenue

broadcast Revenue hovers at 30 percent

and Commercial Revenue clocks in at 34

for the past 12 years but where

Barcelona takes a cake is in its years

of unchecked spending and player

compensation the pressure to appease a

fan base that has high expectations and

to uphold a winning image meant bringing

in the hottest players at every

opportunity no matter the cost

Barcelona's desperation for Marquee

signings and on the field performance

drove a cycle of undisciplined spending

on bloated contracts above Market

salaries and astronomical transfer fees

whatever money it took to get players in

the door while the fans loved every

signing and the team improved on paper

player compensation at the club reached

untenable levels from 2014 to 2021

player compensation skyrocketed from 400

million euros to nearly 700 million

euros every season 80 to 90 cents of

every dollar that Barcelona generated

from television broadcasts tickets

jersey sales merchandise and

sponsorships all went to paying players

meaning that the club has had to dip

into debt for the past eight straight

seasons and counting to find the cash to

keep the lights on

but when you attend a Barcelona game

these days you would have no idea how

close the club is to financial collapse

for the sake of keeping the money

flowing the club has to keep up

appearances and maintain the spectacle

so that fans keep spending even if the

on the field product no longer matches

the club's historic reputation

to see for myself I traveled to

Barcelona to attend its Champions League

match with Bayern Munich the best of

Spain against the best of Germany for

such a high profile matchup Barcelona

charged 1950 euros for a single ticket

at Midfield promising not just the best

views but also VIP experience with

complementary food and alcohol while

regular fans lined up for their seats at

the bleachers with metal gates VIP

ticket holders like myself went through

the fancy class entrances and marble

floors greeted warmly by staff wearing

suits we were given special wristbands

and ushered to the Barcelona Museum

where all the club's trophies were laid

out alongside various food stands they

served an endless stream of lukewarm

Burgers unseasoned slices of roast beef

cold wraps that tasted like the kind you

would grab at a supermarket ha Saucy

pasta some mysterious ravioli and even a

station where they hand carved hamon for

you the food can be best described as a

5 out of 10 that's on par with

forgettable office catering most VIP

holders seemed at peace with this with

many cramming in as much food and drink

as possible before the match started

there was live music branded napkins a

photo station and then the game was

underway it was a roaring atmosphere and

the VIP tickets certainly lived up to

their pitch of having the best views in

all of comp now you were close enough to

the field to see every trick and dribble

but also far enough to see the entire

game unfold on either end you could hear

the trash talking between the coaches

and their dugouts the arguments with

referees and the loud cheers coming in

from all sections

after the game the staff funneled US

towards another private lounge with beer

on tap desserts and game highlights what

was most interesting was that Barcelona

didn't seem to suffer from any shortage

of fans to monetize if anything it

seemed like the club couldn't monetize

fast enough whether it was at the

stadium that night or at stores all over

the city all of them had been sold out

of the Classic Home Jersey for months

the only jerseys available were the less

appealing gray away jersey or last

year's jerseys which many people were

still buying for 90 to 120 euros at the

stadium there were literally tens of

thousands of fans who had paid hundreds

of Euros for their seats and then

hundreds more who had paid thousands of

Euros for their seats like myself and

just about everyone was wearing jerseys

of the latest signings and carrying out

bags of licensed memorabilia that they

had purchased from the store it's not

easy to imagine how much more Barcelona

as a club could monetize its fan base a

bigger and nicer Stadium could certainly

seat more fans but ticket prices were

already pretty high in consumption of

the club's products and merchandise was

already very noticeable how many more

big name sponsorships a hundred Euro

jerseys 2 000 Euro seats 25 Euro scarves

and 10 euro mugs would you have to sell

to turn a profit over half a billion

dollars of player salaries

even with a four-year 280 million euro

deal with Spotify it's worrisome that

Barcelona's Executives remain committed

to The quote-unquote Virtuous cycle

despite all the evidence that such a

thing just doesn't exist just a few more

trophies and a bigger Stadium they say

and the revenue sponsorships and jersey

sales will all flow in and make up for

all these costs

Barcelona became the first ever football

club to surpass over a billion euros in

Revenue in 2021 but much of that came

from the club's wholesale liquidation of

its business and its future rights to

broadcast Revenue what's more troubling

is that Barcelona's on the field product

these days is terrible getting blown out

three nothing with zero shots on goal

for 90 minutes at home that night shows

just how poor the on the field product

is these days and how far the club has

fallen from its winning ways despite

investing record amounts of money and

talent for the past eight seasons

this is why the European Super League

keeps coming up amongst the elite clubs

in Spain Italy and England the core Club

business model is simply so problematic

that the only way to meaningfully drive

more revenue is to Simply play more high

profile High viewership games which will

then in turn unlock more real estate

more spend more television rights and

more ad spots from sponsors

since the idea of the super league is

that it's an exclusive competition with

only 20 of the top football clubs in the

world as quote the best players the best

teams every week that means there are

fewer mouths to feed and every Club

involved in this particular competition

gets a generous slice of the pie

this is in contrast to how the broadcast

Revenue in the Premier League and

champions league is split today where

it's diluted across too many teams the

minnows the Giants and the in-betweens

to contribute enough for these big clubs

to work with

when a club is bankrolled by the

fortunes and generosity of a billionaire

owner it has no need to turn a profit or

waste time pretending to be a business

Manchester United Juventus and Barcelona

three prestigious clubs and three very

different countries have all faced the

same pressure to win on the field for

its fans and to somehow grow profits for

shareholders if these clubs optimize for

profitability and they cut back on

player salaries and reduce operating

expenses to turn profits the on the

field product will suffer even more than

it has fans and sponsors will have a

harder time justifying their support for

losing clubs when we look at Manchester

City an oil Club who has spent Saudi

fortunes to become the most successful

English Club in recent history the club

has posted losses in hundreds of

millions of Euros in the past several

years but their fans the owners the

league and the average viewer doesn't

care Manchester city is winning the team

plays well and the club adds the yearly

spectacle of the champions league and

the Premier League so ultimately the

question is what really matters most for

the sport of football is it for clubs to

be sustainable or is it about producing

the most entertaining on the field

product even if such a thing is only

possible through billionaire owners with

more money than time