This story is a few weeks old but it’s worth posting anyway. It says that despite the threat of a global recession, the cash cow that is the TV rights of footie will keep those that benefit from it quite liquid throughout the down turn. UEFA netted a nice US $400 billion from this year’s European Cup broadcast and stand to make over US $1 billion from the current Champions League competition. The 2010 World Cup should put a little over US $3 billion in FIFA’s pockets while Manchester United netted US $76 billion after winning the Champions league final last year.
An FYI:, part of Man U’s money came from their share of TV rights. You wanted to know why a Champions League title is so important to club owners? You wanted to know why American businessmen bought Liverpool FC and, on the whole, are looking to buy more European footie teams? There’s your answer: that clubs get a chunk of the TV rights in Europe unlike in the states, where the NFL, MBA, MLB et al keep all the TV loot for themselves.
I don’t agree with FIFA president Michel Platini’s comment that teams with debt shouldn’t be allowed in the Champions League competition though. As far as I know, their debts don’t have anything to do with the CL; therefore, their debts are none of FIFA’s business, let alone Platini’s.
And it appears that Germany’s Bundesliga is about to get into the TV money game as broadcasters compete to broadcast said-leagues domestic games. A while back, I did a post about how sponsorship money is loading into the Bundesliga. Sadly, the link to the story is dead…stupid Yahoo News!!!!!!!!!