The Bundesliga may no longer regularly produce Champions League finalists, and their national team bowed to Fabio Capello's resurgent side in Berlin six days ago, but Germany has edged ahead of England in one increasingly significant league table - the value of its shirt sponsorship.
Figures released today show that the Bundesliga has overtaken the Barclays Premier League as the league with the largest total income from shirt sponsorship, and that Bayern Munich are ahead of Manchester United in having the single most valuable shirt sponsorship deal.
However, this shift in power is only partly a consequence of German top-flight clubs becoming more attractive billboards for sponsors. SPORT+MARKT's tenth annual European Jersey report explains that the economic climate and the drop in the exchange rate of the pound against the euro have been largely responsible for reducing the value of English sponsorship deals relative to those of the top European clubs - even though the contracts have not been renegotiated.
It also helps to explain why the overall level of shirt sponsorship across the six main European leagues has dropped for the first time, from €405.3million (about £344.2million) in 2007-08 to €393.2million this season.
“Due to the weak British pound, Bayern Munich beat Manchester United to the title of the most valuable jersey deal,” Hartmut Zastrow, the executive director of SPORT+MARKT, said. “The main reasons why the Bundesliga now generates higher income from jersey sponsorships than the Premier League lies in [clubs] lacking jersey partners and the current weakness of the British currency. The sponsor of West Ham United, XL airlines, went bankrupt, West Bromwich Albion have yet to find a partner and Aston Villa now bears the logo of a charity organisation on its jersey.
“The Bundesliga is the winning league in this jersey report after slipping behind the English FA Premier League last season. For the first time revenue from jersey sponsorship in the Bundesliga exceeds the €100million mark. No other league has reached such a consistency of sponsorship deals for all teams.”
At the other end of the scale, a dip in revenues in Spain has meant that it has almost been caught by the Dutch Eredivisie. “It is astounding that a small league like the Eredivisie reaches the same level as the Primera División in terms of jersey sponsorship,” Zastrow said.
In the early days of sponsorship, shirts tended to bear the names of beers and electronics manufacturers. Nowadays, financial institutions such as AIG, Manchester United's sponsor, lead the way in Europe, followed by travel and tourism companies and betting outlets such as bwin, whose name adorns the jerseys of Real Madrid and AC Milan. Telecommunications do not make the top three sectors despite the presence of T-Home and Samsung on the shirts of Bayern and Chelsea respectively.
However, that is expected to change. “As contracts are fixed over a long period of time, the Jersey report proves that sport sponsorship is not affected by the financial crisis - yet,” Zastrow said. “Instead of a decrease in sponsorship value, we expect a shift of sectors amongst sport sponsors.”
SPORT+MARKT also expects England to regain its pre-eminence. “If the currency or the teams that are lacking a paying sponsor recover, the Premier League will top the ranking again next season,” Gareth Moore, the international sales director, said.
Source: The Times UK
