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21.02.2008 19:57
Media stars and valued youth products
www.fcbarcelona.cat
A Universidad de Navarra report considers FC Barcelona to have more media impact than any other club in the world. And their youth products, valued at 165 million euros, are way ahead of second placed Real Madrid on 81 million.
FC Barcelona has moved ahead of Manchester United in the ranking of
football clubs’ media profiles. This was the finding of the ESIrg research group at the
Universidad de Navarra, indicating the signing of Henry, the explosion of Messi and the emergence
of Bojan as three of the main factors.
The report was presented at the Sport Business Centre in Birbeck (London University) and puts the Catalans ahead of Manchester United, A. C. Milan, Chelsea and Real Madrid, who are down to five after getting rid of so many of the notorious galácticos.
Individually, Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo is now valued higher
than Ronaldinho, second, while Messi leaps from twelfth to third. There are three Spaniards in the
top twenty, namely Raúl, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres, and Arsenal’s Cesc Fábregas.
The most valuable youths
The ESIrg group at the Universidad de Navarra also investigated the quality of the youngsters produced by major European clubs. They attribute the greatest success in this respect to FC Barcelona (165 million euros), Real Madrid (81 million) and A. S. Roma (67 million). Research has also shown that the youth players generate 16.6% of the total media value.
Although UEFA is implanting measures to promote youth
football, Francesc Pujol, a professor at the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales of the
Universidad de Navarra, and the co-author of the report along with Pedro García del Barrio,
considers that the best support this aspect could gain in Europe would be “a substantial
review of the regulation for accounting for the values of players”.
Overvalued leagues and shirts
The price paid by some companies to sponsor shirts in the Bundesliga is considered greater than the
value in real terms. An example of this is Schalke 04, for whose image Russian company Gazprom paid
20 million euros, as also is Wolfsburg, who received the same amount from Volkswagen.
According to UIC, this phenomenon is similar to the income some teams get for television rights. They consider the English Premiership to be worth 33% of the total media value, followed by the Spanish Liga (22.4%), Italian Calcio (17.7%), the German Bundesliga (9.2%) and the French Ligue (7.5%).
According to UIC, this phenomenon is similar to the income some teams get for television rights. They consider the English Premiership to be worth 33% of the total media value, followed by the Spanish Liga (22.4%), Italian Calcio (17.7%), the German Bundesliga (9.2%) and the French Ligue (7.5%).
