A replica of Mbappé’s Adidas-branded shirt, with his name on the back, retails for as much as £185 — or £200 for one with long sleeves and Champions League badges. The advent of the £200 shirt is seen by some industry executives as a byproduct of prevailing trends reshaping football finance.
Merchandise is an increasingly important growth driver for
clubs, as the media rights market slows significantly — and with onerous new
regulations linking transfer spending limits with revenues, generating growth
off the pitch is crucial to stay competitive on it.
Revenues at the retail and licensing division of FC
Barcelona — which charges fans £320 for a shirt with teenage star Lamine
Yamal’s name in a limited edition font on the back — rose 55 per cent to €170mn
last year. Manchester United’s retail sales grew 16 per cent to £145mn last
year, despite flat revenue overall. Meanwhile, Liverpool FC has built a retail
network across Asia and the Middle East, opening its 22nd store last week in
China’s Shenzhen.
Alongside the income from selling replica jerseys and other
apparel and merchandise, top clubs can also earn tens of millions of pounds a
year in sponsorship fees from the sportswear brands that produce their teams’
kits. Those fees mean brands such as Nike and Adidas often lose money supplying
the shirts, they reap the benefits of exposure gained by having their logo on a
club’s kit.
When a new season rolls around most fans do not splurge on
high-end replicas, choosing instead to buy so-called stadium edition replica
shirts, which are made with more basic materials. The average price of these
shirts for Premier League clubs is £75, with children’s shirts ranging from £45
to £65.
A shirt that retails for £70 will typically cost about
£15-20 to manufacture, and be supplied to retailers at a wholesale price of
£35, according to industry executives. While clubs rake in royalties on shirts
sold by third-party retailers, the margins for the sportswear brands are thin —
typically between zero and 10 per cent, the executives added. Club executives
stress their own retail businesses operate on tight margins too.
Adolfo Bara, head of football at sports marketing agency
IMG, said only a small group of clubs had the global appeal to command high
fees from brands. “The top clubs get a lot of money. The mid-tier get a little,
and the lower tier get nothing,” he said. Premium replica shirts cost more to
produce but come with higher margins.
The average price of a premium Premier League club shirt,
with a player’s name printed on the back, is £132, according to data collected
by the Financial Times. Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and
Manchester United all sell replica shirts priced at or more than £150. The
ability to sell deluxe shirts at higher prices is in part a reflection of an
increasingly global fan base, especially for the English Premier League.
Demand for shirts has also been boosted by football’s
growing appeal in the world of fashion. “We have something in this football
business which we have never seen before — that football articles have become
fashion,” said Adidas chief executive Bjørn Gulden at a recent industry
conference. “People are starting to wear soccer shoes on the street — even with
studs — which is kind of crazy.”
Clubs are trying to ride that wave. AC Milan released
limited edition kits this year designed by Off-White, the fashion brand founded
by the late Virgil Abloh, while Arsenal has previously produced collaborations
with designer Stella McCartney. Gulden said “the forecast for the next 12
months for soccer-inspired products is almost twice what it’s been”, adding
that a lot of investment was being directed towards “selling football as a much
bigger thing than only for the fan”.
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