What's the story?
Being successful on the football field makes a team financially strong and ready to compete with other rich clubs in the world. Some clubs have gone on to accumulate such wealth as a result of their sponsorships and kit deals coupled with team successes that a huge gap is created between a few rich clubs and the others.
UEFA have released an official report which states that nine European clubs are so financially strong that the others have no hope of catching them. These 'super-clubs' include five teams from the Premier League – Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.
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The governing body feels this divide between the rich and the remaining clubs is not good for the future of the game. The report read, “These supporter bases are growing inexorably, powered by star players, overseas tours and regular participation in the UEFA Champions League group stage.”
The other four clubs in the list include Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
In case you didn't know...
The report revealed that the Premier League clubs have more income, which is almost £4 billion, than the 597 clubs in Europe's 48 leagues combined. It also stated that all footballers in the world are worth around £25.5 billion with Europe being home to £21 billion worth of talent. The Premier League itself has players worth £3.7 billion.
The heart of the matter
The nine ‘super clubs’ have boosted their annual income by around £100 million just by their commercial sources. The average increase in all the European clubs is well below a £1 million which is a staggering statistic.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin warned of the dangers of this financial imbalance when he released this report.
What’s next?
The annual 'bench-marking' report revealed that the rich clubs or 'super-clubs' as termed by UEFA, have found new ways of monetising their support bases around the globe which has seen them earn a whopping sum each year.
With the ever increasing wage bill and sponsorship deals being announced every other month, it will be difficult to put a halt to the spending powers of these nine clubs.
Sportskeeda's take
The figures that are released by UEFA of these rich clubs are just mind boggling. The increasing ticket prices are an example of how the clubs do not think about their fan base and only want to pocket more revenue.
If the governing body does not put a cap on net spend soon, there will be a time soon that the owners of the 'super-clubs' turn the teams into global business commodities.
