Juventus, a Italian comapny

Last club I’ll tell you about is the Italian club Juventus FC. Juventus ended first in Italia 27 times already. Nowadays they are in a pursuit of clubs who have overtaken them in the hierarchy of the Italian Serie A. Juventus hasn’t been Italian champions for 7 seasons. And it doesn’t seem they will be this year. Juventus has been a joint stock company since 1967, and since December 2001 they are listed on the Italian stock exchange Borsa Italiana. 60 % Of the shares is in hands of  the Agnelli family, which makes them the owners of Juventus FC. 7.5 % of the shares belongs to Arab Foreign Investment Co. and 32.5 to other stakeholders.  In Italy there are three clubs listed on the Borsa Italiana, next to Juventus that are Lazio and AS Roma. Juventus is doing very good financially. They are eight highest earning football club in the world with a estimated revenue of  203.2 million Euros. They are also the eighth most valuable club in the world, according to a list Forbes Magazine released quite recently. This makes them the second most valuable club in Italy.
The president of ‘the Old Lady’, which is the nickname of Juventus, is Andrea Agnelli. One of his jobs is to stay friends with FC Torino, which they share the Stadium with. The stadium I’m talking about is called Stadio Delle Alpi. The stadium is probably better known under the name Stadio Delle Alpi. Juventus hopes they can celebrate a championship in this stadium in short period of time again.

Bayern Munich, a rising star

Next club I’m going to type about is FC Bayern Munich. They are 20 times German champion, and therefore they have four stars on their shirt. Because in Germany, unlike Holland for example, you get a star on your shirt with every 5 Bundesliga titles you win. Bayern Munich is one of the four clubs in the world who have won all European prices. Last year they were close to winning another big European price, but they lost the final of the UEFA Champions League against Internazionale. What is notable about the upswing of FC Bayern Munich since 1965, is that it coincides with the upswing of Franz Beckenbauer, one of Bayerns best and most famous players ever. He has also been president of the club from 1994 until 2009. After he quit, Uli Hoeness became the new president of Bayern Munich. Bayern is co-owned by Adidas and Audi. They both own about 9 % of the shares of Bayern Munich. They only difference about the sponsorships, is that Adidas bought their share in 2002 for about 77 million Euros, and that Audi had to pay more money. They bought their share in 2009 for an amount of 90 million Euros. Bayern is going to use this money to pay off the loan on their new stadium, the Allianz Arena quicker than planned. There is nothing wrong with the finances of the club. According to numbers Deloitte published in 2009, Bayern is the fourth richest club generating revalues of 289.5 million Euros. 

Arsenal FC

The next club I’m going to discuss is Arsenal. Arsenal is a English football club, play in the Premier League. They are thirteen times English champion, but have never won the Champions League in their history. Arsenals head sponsor is Emirates. Emirates is a airline from the United Arabic Emirates. The sponsor deal was signed in 2004, and will end in 2021. As you can see that is a very long period of time. Emirates is not only the shirt sponsor of Arsenal, the stadium of Arsenal, the Emirates Stadium, also carries the name of the sponsor. This all costs Emirates an estimated 8 million pounds a year. But that is nothing for a big company from a wealthy oil country like Emirates. They use their sponsorship to attach their name to a big football club, to promote their name in Europe. To reach this goal, they don’t only sponsor Arsenal, but they also sponsor HSV from Germany and AC Milan from Italy. Quite recently they also sponsored Chelsea FC, but that deal is terminated.
If I mention Arsenal, I should also mention Arsene Wenger. The Frenchman has been the manager of Arsenal since 1996. He is kind of mister Arsenal. Only, Arsenal has one big problem. They are worldwide known about their good football, but they don’t win prices anymore. So that’s what they are trying to reach again right now. They want to be the champion of England again. And I think they are definitely capable of doing that.  

AFC Ajax and their hunt for the third star

AFC Ajax is one of the ‘big three’ in Holland. Together with PSV en Feyenoord they form ‘the traditional top three’. Feyenoord isn’t doing well at the moment, but PSV and Ajax are still at the top of the table. Ajax have been Dutch champions 29 times. They are hunting for the third star on their shirt. You get a star for every 10 times you become the champion. But the third star seems a curse for Ajax. They haven’t been the Dutch champions for 6 years. PSV and FC Twente have been champions the last seasons. In the hunt for the third star Ajax had many trainers, but they all failed to win the third star.
Ajax’ head sponsor is Aegon. Aegon is a Dutch Insurance company which pays Ajax 12 million Euros a year to be on their jersey. What makes the deal between Aegon and Ajax unique, is that the deal lasts for 7 seasons. And after that 7 seasons Aegon has the opportunity the sign a new contract.
Ajax’ biggest rival is Feyenoord. The matches between ‘020’ and ‘010’, which are the net numbers of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, are called ‘de klassieker’. This match is charged with tension, what caused many fights between the two groups of supporters. After the last fight between supporters, the mayors of Rotterdam and Amsterdam decided that supporters from the away team can’t come to the stadium to watch the game. As I type this, we’re only two hours away from the next Ajax-Feyenoord, I hope Feyenoord will win this time! 

Internazionale, worlds champion

Internazionale is a club from Italy. They have been Italian champions 18 times by now. They are, together with Juventus, to record holder of consecutive championships (5 times in a row). They also are the reigning world champions. Inter plays their home games in the ‘Stade Guiseppe Meazza’. There is something special about this stadium, because AC Milan also plays their home games in it. But when AC Milan plays, the stadium is called ‘San Siro’. The shirt sponsor of Internazionale is Pirelli. Pirelli is a tire fabrication company situated in Milan. They have been the shirt sponsor of Internazionale since 1995. Nowadays the deal is worth  9.3 million Euros a year. But that isn’t the only big sponsor Internazionale is contracted with. Sports brand Nike also signed a huge sponsor deal with internazionale, worth approximately 18.1 million Euros a year. This is good for the bank account of the club, but the sponsors want something in return for it. For example, Nike can design the shirts of internazionale, they can choose coloring and design. But the big problem Internazionale has, is that they don’t own their own stadium. They rent the stadium for a big amount of money, about 13 million Euros a year. Besides that, they also don’t obtain money from stadium concerts or activities like that, because the stadium isn’t theirs. Therefore, chairman Ernesto Paolillo is planning to build a new stadium, which will be fully owned by Internazionale. This way they want to gain more money to keep the club healthy.

Manchester City, ruining football?

Manchester City is a English football club. They have been Englisch champions twice, but the last time is already 42 years ago. But Manchester City is rising up again. You would think that is a very good, and it is, but they’ve got some help from out the Middle-East. In the summer of 2007, the first major investment took part. A Thai man named Thaksin Shinawatra bought 80% of the club for over 81 million pounds. But this didn’t bring the wished result, a championship. In 2008 a new Group of investors reported itself in Manchester. It was the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). They bought such a high part of the shares, so they got a mojority. This made them owner of Manchester City. The man behind ADUG, Al Nayhan, has an estimated amount of money of 32 billion euros. This meant Manchester City became the wealthiest club in the World. Their first big purchase was Robinho. They paid 42 million euros for him, but he wouldn’t be the last player Manchester City was going to buy. To express the wealth of Manchester City, Yaya Toure, a player who sa ton the bench when he was under contract by FC Barcelona, gained 220.000 euros per game. I don’t like what Manchester City is doing, because I feel like they are destroying football. The ADUG should do other things with their money to promote Abu Dhabi, like investing in projects which makes thousands of people get a job. Now they just overpay spoiled football players.

Olympique Lyonnais, a (former) French champion

Olympique Lyon is a French club, which plays in the highest French league, the ‘Lique 1’. They are seven times French champion. Remarkable is that they have been Frech champions fors even years now. This means all their championships are consecutive, from 2002 till 2008. But they haven’t been champions for two years now, and it doesn’t seem that they are going to be the champions this year. Even as in the national league the past two years, Lyonhasn’t won a title in the European. Lyon did have their nice resluts in the Uefa Champions League, but they have never won it. Lyons head sponsor is Betclic. But what is very interesting about Olympique Lyon is that the are an exchange listed club. This was initiated by Jean-Michel Aulas. The emission of the shares was in nonvember 2008. Since then everybody can buy and sell their shares. So this means that you can be co-owner of Olympique Lyon. I think this is pretty cool. Selling shares has been a very productive activity for Olympique Lyonnais. It even made them enough money to begin to build a new stadium. Lyon is currently playing their home games in the ‘Stade Gerland’. This is the biggest stadium in France, and it also is the stadium where the French national team plays their games. The biggest rival of Olympique Lyonnais is AS Saint-Etienne. The rivalry is so big, the games between these two clubs even have their own name, they are called ‘Derby du Rhône’.

  

Feyenoord and their problems

Feyenoord is a known club around the World. They are 14 times Dutch champion, and have won the Europe Cup I once. They also won the Uefa cup twice. But Feyenoord seems to have had their best days. Momentarily Feyenoord is on a return. They have problems on the sports side, but also on the financial side. They started the winter break in a thirteenth position, way too low for a club like Feyenoord. They also haven’t won a single away game for the last twelve times they tried. But besides from the bad form the team is in, Feyenoord is restricted in its possibilities because they have huge financial problems. They are in deep depths and can’t afford to buy new players. Feyenoord’s head sponsor is ASR, a insurance company. But the amount of money Feyenoord is gaining from ASR, is by far not as high as the sum clubs like Real Madrid gain. So Feyenoord doesn’t gain enough money to pay off their depths. They recently sold a part of their shares, with this they obtained money, but they are stil in depths. And if this isn’t bad enough, the technical staff is breaking up as we speak. Leo Beenhakker, technical director, has decided to quit after this season, because he felt mistreated. Al this has a negative consequence on the results of Feyenoord. As Feyenoord is my favourite club in The Netherlands, I hope that they will stand up, and try their best to get back at the top of the table next year.

Real Madrid CF

Real Madrid is a very famous club in the World. Every football fan knows about Real Madrid. Real Madrid is a Spanisch club and is currently the runner-up in Spain. In Spain, almost every year goes by in the same way. Each year Barcelona and Real Madrid battle for the title. The reamining clubs play for the third spot, and can only hope for a year Barcelona and Real Madrid will be less successful so they can be the champions for a year.  Although Real Madrid is currently the runner-up, they were Spanisch champions thirty-one! times already. They also won the Champions League 9 times. Real Madrids sponsor is Bwin. Bwin is a betting company. They call themselves ‘the worlds leading name in online betting and real money gaming’. So besides betting you can also play games for real money at Bwin. Bwin sponsors Real Madrid with an incredible amount of money each year. It seems to go about 20 million euros each year. That is an amazing amount of money to beo n the shirt of a football club. But still Real Madrid, which is the most valuable club in the World with a value of 950 million euros, is in deep depths. They still owe several companies and institutions an amount of 327 million euros. And when Real Madrid will not stop spending so much money, they probably won’t be able to pay off this depths in a short period a time.

VFL Wolfsburg and Volkswagen

The blog you are reading right now is about VFL Wolfsburg. VFL Wolfsburg is a German club, which plays in the Bundesliga. The were the champions of the Bundesliga in the season 2008-2009. VFL Wolfsburg was originally part of a multisport club, which also contained a basketball, hochey and volleyball club. But in 2001 VFL Wolfsburg seperated itself from this club, when new head sponsor Volkswagen bought 90% of the shares of VFL Wolfsburg. Since then VFL Wolfsburg is a club of its own, owned by Volkswagen. I think everybody who reads this blog will know what Volkswagen is, but for the people who don’t, i will tell something about Volkswagen. Volkswagen is the biggest car brand of Volkswagen Group, and has two cars in the top 5 of most sold cars ever. This are the Volkswagen polo and the Volkswagen Golf. You can imagine, when knowing this, that Volkswagen is a very wealthy company. So they weren’t satisfied with ‘only’ 90 % of the shares from VFL Wolsburg. So in 2007 Volkswagen also bought the remaining 10% of the stocks and since then VFL Wolfsburg is fully owned by Volkswagen. The stadium of VFL Wolfsburg is also called to the head sponsor, the name of the stadium is namely ‘Der Volkswagenarena’.  Nowadays VFL Wolfsburg doesn’t play for the German titel anymore, the leader of the German Bundesliga is momentarily Borussia Dortmund, and it seems they will be this years Bundesliga champion.

Manchester United and the A's (AIG and AON)

Manchester United is a big football club from England. They have been champions of England for 18 times. This makes them record holder, together with Arsenal which also won the Premier League 18 times already. They also won the Champions League three times already. Another nice fact about Manchester United, is that they have the biggest number of supporters al over the world, 449 million supporters. If you hear what big prices Manchester United already won, it probably doesn't surprise you that they have big sponsor deal. The Manchester United Head sponsor of last season was AIG. AIG is an American Insurance company. AIG sponsored Manchester United for 4 years. In this four years AIG has been the shirt sponsor of Manchester United. Manchester United received the incredible amount of 56.5 million pounds for this deal. This comes to about 14 million pounds a year, just to be on the shirt of Manchester United. When AIG made this deal with Manchester United, it was the biggest sponsor deal in England. But now, for the coming four years, Manchester United has signed a deal with the American insurance company  AON corporation. This deal is worth an amazing 80 million pounds. So you see how much money companies pay just to be on the shirt of a famous football club. And what you can tell from the sponsor history of Manchester United, it only becomes more and more. The next question rises then, where does it stop? Or maybe the question should be, does it stop?

Introduction

Hello everybody. My name is Thom Voskamp. I'm sixteen years old and currently studying marketing at The Hague University. Previously I obtained my HAVO diploma. After obtaining my diploma I doubted about my next study for a long time. I communicated with friends, and asked them if they knew a study which was right for me. After considering a few studies, I decided to follow the study Marketing at The Hague University .One of my courses is Business Communication. You can see it as business related English. Subject in the first semester is to improve our business vocabulary and fluency. To improve our business vocabulary we have to write a blog twice a week for the coming 6 weeks. This comes to a total of 12 blogs. The blogs have to have a marketing related subject. My blog will be about the big sponsors in football. I find this subject interesting because I like football a lot. My favourite club is Feyenoord. You probably know Feyenoords finances aren’t very good right now. But the club is now being supported by a group of men which call themselves: ‘Vrienden van Feyenoord’. They already obtained 17 million euros for Feyenoord. This made me wonder which companies support which clubs, and why they do that. So each blog I'll post from now on, will describe one big sponsor in football. When I say a big sponsor, I really mean big sponsors, companies like AIG for example, which sponsors Manchester United.

Kind regards,
Thom Voskamp