How Much Money Do Football Clubs Make from Sponsorship?

In fact, back in the early 90s and during the start of the first-ever Premier League season, there was a rather homespun approach to things. 

A trip back in time to Bramall Lane on the 15th of August 1992 will show just that as Brian Deane scored the first-ever goal in the Premier League’s history.

On this occasion, Deane bundled in a header from close range to open the scoring against Manchester United and in doing so sent a sun-soaked Bramhall Lane into euphoria. This prompted an enraged Sir Alex Ferguson to head for the dugout to bemoan his team’s defending to anyone that would listen. Perhaps this was where Ferguson’s permanent red face began as Deane would slot home a penalty during the second half to seal all three points on a day that the Blades fans will never forget.

 

September 26, 2016

Anyone watching the triumphant Deane wheel away to celebrate with the home fans on that balmy afternoon in August nearly 30 years ago, would have seen that he was wearing a shirt sponsored by Laver. Laver, of course, was a local timber merchant based in the city. Regional sponsorship wasn't a rarity during those heady days of 1992 and certainly wasn’t exclusive to just Sheffield United. 

Indeed, during that swashbuckling performance from the Blades in Yorkshire, Norwich were down the M1 beating Arsenal 4-2. On the opening day, the Canaries ran out onto the Highbury pitch with Norwich and Peterborough Building Society proudly displayed on their kit. Meanwhile, Southampton were on the south coast playing out a goalless draw with Spurs and had Draper Tools - a family-owned tool company in the area- plastered across their home shirt. Wimbledon on the other hand, who were the victims of a Lee Chapman masterclass at Elland Road on that opening day, didn’t even have a shirt sponsor. 

As mentioned, it was a slow start in terms of sponsorship in the Premier League and elsewhere around Europe during the early 90s. The multinational companies hadn’t yet decided to throw their weight behind football. But that of course changed as Europe’s Big Five leagues made their way into more and more living rooms around the world. Fast forward to 2021 and the landscape has changed beyond recognition. 

The Ships Came in for the Class of '92

To illustrate just how much things have changed, let’s take a look at how the fortunes of Sheffield United and Norwich have swung in terms of sponsorship these days. The Canaries no longer come out of the tunnel at Carrow Road with a local building company as their main kit sponsor, but rather that of Dafabet. Now, Dafabet has secured lucrative contracts with major football clubs like Celtic and Fulham, as well as the Welsh national team. Tellingly, UK players can’t access the casino and betting services of Dafabet, which does give you a good indication of the global reach of football in the United Kingdom. Players from other countries can take advantage of a range of markets across multiple sports, as well as a sign-up offer and a variety of promos.

As for Sheffield United, well, they have parted ways with their once trusted local timber merchant and have instead unveiled the largest-ever commercial transaction in the club's history. By signing a three-year sponsorship deal with Union Standard Group, they are rumoured to bring in the region of £3.5 million a season. 

These are of course huge and impressive sponsorship deals that Norwich and Sheffield United have managed to land and they’ve come a long way financially since 1992, but they are still some way off the rarefied atmosphere of the top clubs in Europe in terms of lucrative endorsements. 

The Clubs with the Highest Sponsorship Revenue in World Football 

Take a walk around Old Trafford on matchday and ask those in the stadium concourse about their feelings on current chief executive Ed Woodward. You’re likely to receive a fair amount of dissent in the feedback with the majority not convinced about the 49-year-old’s record, given that trophies have dried up since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson. The general feeling among the Old Trafford faithful is that Woodward has been brought in to run Manchester United as a business with the overriding criticism being that he is more interested in turning a profit than delivering trophies. 

 

December 30, 2020

Whilst the latter may well be a bit of an overly simplistic conclusion given that you can’t typically make money without winning trophies, you certainly can’t argue the merits of the former. 

Woodward Weaves His Magic 

Astonishingly, in 2018 Woodward secured 69 different sponsorship deals that yielded the club a staggering £235 million in endorsements for the season. The current kit deal that Woodward’s Manchester United has with Chevrolet earns the Red Devils £70 million a season alone and will run until the end of the 2021 campaign. It won’t come as any surprise, then, to learn that Manchester United generates the most money through sponsorships out of any football club in the world after hitting revenue records never seen before at the club.

With that in mind, Real Madrid can boast the same amount for a shirt sponsor as Manchester United, with the airline Emirates paying Los Blancos £70 million a year to fly their flag on the famous white shirt on matchday. 

Fellow Spanish giants Barcelona are third on the list with an annual sponsorship turnover of £231 million. The Catalans owe most of this to lucrative shirt sponsor deals with Rakuten who shell out £55 million a season to have their names on the Barca kit. 

As far as kit deals go, PSG comes in just behind Barcelona after negotiating themselves a bumper deal with Accor worth £50 million a season. Initially, Emirates were sponsoring the Paris giants but only offered £25 million per season which you would have to say is probably the going rate for sponsorship in France’s Ligue 1.  Unsatisfied with this, however, PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi shopped around and managed to shake hands with Accor on a deal that was double what they were getting from the Dubai based airline. Incidentally, in the process of doing so, Al-Khelaifi ended a partnership with Emirates that went back to 2006. 

The Most Lucrative Leagues in the World 

As far as the Big Five leagues in Europe go, the Premier League earns the most out of sponsorships as it generates over £1 billion a year from 440 different endorsements. The Bundesliga comes in second with 617 deals that generate £641.5 million and La Liga third with £592.4 million a season from various sponsorships. This illustrates how slim the pickings are for teams that aren’t Barcelona or Real Madrid, as the league is only third for sponsorship deals in Europe, despite having the two biggest clubs in the world playing in it. 

Unsurprisingly, Serie A is fourth with the Italian league generating £383.6 million in sponsorship deals. But that is still above the amount of Ligue 1, with the French top-flight turning over £312.4 million a year. 

When you add that all up, you’ll find that the Big Five leagues in Europe generate over £3.4 billion a year through countless sponsorship deals. 

Those are eye-watering amounts and seem a universe away from the day that Brian Deane ran around a sunny Bramhall Lane advertising a local timber company to the world.