Stars, Shirts and Sponsors
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2018
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How are elite football clubs able to raise so much money from sponsors and merchandise to spend on the top players?
Juventus just paid 100 million euros to buy Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who at 33 years old has only 2-3 years of his peak playing left. Ed Butler asks football finance expert Rob Wilson of Sheffield Hallam University to explain how they get the numbers to add up.
Plus Doug Bierton of retailer Classic Football Shirts talks about the fan nostalgia over vintage sponsors, and Nathan Brew, commercial manager at the Llanelli Scarlets explains why the Welsh rugby club decided to make room on their kit for more than 20 sponsors.
(Picture: Juventus new signing Cristiano Ronaldo poses with club shirt; Credit: Valerio Pennicino - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:09.6 | Coming up, another season, another $100 million transfer. |
| 0:14.1 | How much is a football player really worth? |
| 0:16.5 | Ronaldo, you would talk about Lionel Messi. |
| 0:18.8 | You're clutching out a very, very small group of |
| 0:21.0 | players that really have that marketing potential that are iconic brands in their own right. |
| 0:24.7 | Today we're talking top clubs and record profits. What does sponsors gain by having their |
| 0:30.7 | names emblazoned on football team shirts? When Liverpool last won the league, they wore shirts |
| 0:36.3 | with candy sponsor, Arsenal, JVC. Maybe if, say, Liverpool last won the league, they wore shirts with candy sponsor, Arsenal, JBC. |
| 0:40.1 | Maybe if, say, Liverpool win the league this year, people would be nostalgic about standard charter in 30 years time. |
| 0:46.8 | That's all in business daily from the BBC. |
| 0:51.4 | Yes, it's that time again. Football fans around the world, brush down your replica kits or fork out for a new one. |
| 0:58.8 | It's time once again to cheer on your favourite team. |
| 1:03.0 | The English and French Premier League seasons are starting this weekend. |
| 1:06.9 | Italy and Spain's top leagues are underway next weekend. |
| 1:10.4 | Some eye-watering transfer deals have already made the headlines. |
| 1:14.1 | Those prominent among them, clearly, the move of the world footballer of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo, |
| 1:19.3 | from Real Madrid to Italian champions Juventus. |
| 1:23.0 | That move costs some 100 million euros. |
| 1:26.6 | Not a transfer record, no, that's still with Namar of Paris |
| 1:30.2 | Saint-Germain, but it seems a staggering figure to many, given that the player is 33 years old, |
| 1:36.1 | presumably he's just got a couple of years left at his playing peak. I've been speaking to Rob Wilson. |
... |
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