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Deloitte's Soccer Cash Analysis Shows Arsenal, Chelsea Failing to Exploit Their Sponsors

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: November 27, 2010 / 3:45 PM EST / MoneyWatch

According to this year's "Football Money League" report from Deloitte, some soccer clubs -- Arsenal and Chelsea, specifically -- are falling down on the job when it comes to pricing their exposure with sponsors. The annual report ranks and analyzes international teams by their revenues, and breaks out sponsorship and advertising income.

Real Madrid is once again the richest team on the planet at â‚¬401.4 million in revenue:

The other interesting news is that three of the top four teams are not members of the English Premier League, which is usually regarded as the richest league on the planet. EPL teams dominate the rest of the rankings, however, with seven of the 20 spots.

If you drill into the numbers and pull out the advertiser fees as a percentage of overall revenue, you find that there's a broad correlation between being a rich club and having sponsor fees make up 30 percent or more of your revenue. Here's the ranking by revenue, with the sponsor fees broken out:

Club, sponsors, sponsor fees, % of revenues:

Real Madrid, Bwin, â‚¬139.2 million, 35%
FC Barcelona, Etisalat and Betfair, â‚¬112 million, 31%
Manchester United, Saudi Telecom, Hublot, AIG, â‚¬82.2 million, 25%
Bayern Munich, T-Home/Deutsche Telekom, â‚¬159.3 million, 55%
Arsenal, Emirates, â‚¬56.5 million, 21%
Chelsea, Samsung, Thomas Cook and Etihad, â‚¬11.7 million, 26%
Liverpool, Carlsberg, â‚¬79.5 million, 37%
Juventus, New Holland Group, â‚¬54.3 million, 27%
Inter Milan, Pirelli, â‚¬52.6 million, 27%
AC Milan, Bwin, â‚¬64.1 million, 33%

FC Barcelona's sponsor income is much lower than it should be because its main shirt sponsorship is Unicef -- the club is so rich it gives the organization money, not the other way around.

The big surprise is Bayern Munich, which struck a huge deal with T-Home even though it is in the lower profile German Bundesliga. At 55 percent sponsor revenue, the club shows just how much sponsors can be exploited if commercial chiefs are canny enough.

At Arsenal, Deloitte agrees with my previous look at the club's dim commercial achievements:

... the club's commercial revenue continues to lag behind its European peers and is a continued area of focus, which has recently prompted a major restructuring of its commercial department.

And if you compare Chelsea and Liverpool's sponsorship levels -- Chelsea's is lower even though it's the bigger club -- you can see that Deloitte also confirms my previous speculation that Chelsea vastly undervalues its brand.

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