Sports, and football specifically, has been accussed of being too business oriented where clubs and players are only after money (example, all players heading to chelsea :P ).

The business of football is growing at a rate faster than most other businesses, and this is evident by the salaries of players increasing and sponsorship deals rising.

To get an idea of how much sponsorships cost, here is a breakdown of the top European clubs -

  1. Real Madrid - BenQ € 20.6mil per year
  2. Manchester United - AIG, €20 mil per year
  3. Juventus - Tamoil, €18.5 mil per year
  4. Bayern Munich - Deutsche Telekom, €17 mil per year
  5. Chelsea - Samsung, €16 mil per year
  6. Brussia Dortmund - E.On, €12 mil per year
  7. Lyon - Renault, €12 mil per year
  8. Bayer Leverkusen - RWE €9.5 mil per year
  9. AC Milan - Opel €9 mil per year
  10. Arsenal - Emirates €8 mil per year

Obviously this is alot of money, and only from the shirt sponsporship! These clubs are clearly the top clubs in the world, but there is one big club missing from the list, and that is Barcelona.

I am not a big fan of the team, as many of you might know by now, Im a hardcore Arsenal fan, and Barcelona beat Arsenal in the Champions League final last year, which doesnt help in making me like them any more!


But no matter what, you have respect the team for their record and gameplay in recent years. Also, the reason they are not listed in the sponsorship group is because they have a proud tradition of keeping their shirt without a sponsor for 107 years. That deserves respect!

After more than a century of holding out, they broke tradition this year, but not by looking for a record breaking sponsorship deal, which they couldve easily gotten…instead, they partnered up with UNICEF and for a change, the deal states that THEY WILL DONATE 1.5 mil a year to Unicef programs!!
That is incredibly refreshing news in a business that seems to be full of corruption (Italian league scandals, Chelsea, shady deals with West Ham recently, scandals in Greek and Portugese leagues….etc). I have a newfound respect for FC Barcelona, and I hope this step is a first and more clubs and businesses will look for the same!