Messi, PSG and Funding a Football Club
I shared the incidents that led to Messi leaving Barcelona and the question on everyone’s mind “Which club will sign Messi?”
Sentence 1 — It’s no longer news that Lionel Messi has signed for Paris Saint Germain in France and would be wearing the Number 30 jersey.
Sentence 2— The bitter truth is that “football is a business with employees and employers.” Though fueled by the fan’s passion, it is not enough to sustain the round leather game.
Sentence 3— How do clubs make money? How do footballers make money? Why do players become broke after leaving active football? How are the stadia maintained and ready for games? Are there other avenues for sports fans to make money in football?
Sentence 4 — A football club is a business, and like every business, it aims to maximize profit.
Sentence 5 — Football clubs look for creative ways to make money (within the scope of the law).
Sentence 6— Some of the common ways football clubs make money include:
i. Broadcasting Rights — Local and Foreign broadcasting stations bid for rights to broadcast matches live.
ii. Match Day Revenue — Clubs sell tickets to individual games or season tickets.
iii. Sponsorship — Brands pay top dollar for clubs to advertise them. From kits to jerseys as well as other items.
iv. Merchandise — Football clubs sell kits and other club merchandise to fans all over the world.
v. Prize Money — Every season, clubs compete at different tournaments. The higher the clubs are on the table, the more revenue they make.
vi. Transfers — Many clubs are known to groom young players and sell them to clubs willing to pay a huge sum. Some clubs add buy-out clauses to ensure players only leave for a very high sum.
vii. Image Rights — This often works for clubs with notable players. Image rights are simply the right a player possesses to control, sell, license, and otherwise monetize his or her likeness — that is, his/her image, name, nickname, voice, signature, and all other characteristics unique to the player.
Sentence 7— Most football players are managed by agents who take a percentage of their earning. With the help of their agents, they try to find the best deals before they are out of their prime.
Sentence 8— The richest clubs in the world are in Europe and this is no surprise as it is seen as the mecca of football.
Sentence 9— 2020 was a challenging year for most businesses including football clubs who took a big financial hit. To change their financial fortune, the top clubs in Europe decided to create the super league.
Sentence 10 — Super League: The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed annual club football competition that would be contested by twenty European football clubs.
Sentence 11— On paper, the super league was a great idea to generate revenue and increase viewership but it cut out a number of stakeholders who believed the execution of the idea would kill the openly competitive nature of the beautiful game.
Sentence 12— Lionel Messi signed a two-year deal with PSG worth £25m per year after tax.
Sentence 13 — PSG gained over 3 million followers on their Instagram page in 24 hours.
Sentence 14 — The most expensive teenager is Kylian Mbappe — €180m after bonuses [Loan to buy-out deal](Monaco to PSG in 2017).
Sentence 15 — The most expensive defender is Harry Maguire — Harry Maguire — €87.1m (Leicester to Manchester United in 2019).
Sentence 16 — The most expensive goalkeeper is Kepa Arrizabalaga — €80m (Athletic Club to Chelsea in 2018).
Sentence 17 — The most expensive African player is Nicolas Pepe from Ivory Coast — €80 million (Lille to Arsenal in 2019).
Sentence 18 — The most-watched sport in the world is the FIFA world cup which holds every four years. According to FIFA, the 2018 World Cup final between France and Croatia reached an average live audience of 517 million viewers, with more than 1.1 billion people tuning in over its 90 minutes.
Sentence 19 — The sports business is a huge investment and it is beyond the field of play. Virtual games, marketing, making meals for players, fashion accessories, skincare products, children’s clothing, etc. are a number of ways to tap into this huge sector.
Sentence 20— The question for African countries and stakeholders on the continent is “How can the continent eat out of the huge pie of football?”
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section.
