The 2009 Champions League final worths 310 million Euros

Europe’s most popular football clubs (source: sport+ markt)

According to a MasterCard survey on the economic impact of the Roma 2009 Champions final, this event will generate 310 million Euros. According to this study, the winner would be generated a 110 million Euros wealth. Even Manchester United, the loser, would have a positive impact of approximately 65 million Euros.

Even Rome stands to earn more than €45 million from hosting the 2009 Final. The €45 million windfall for Rome compares to €44.5 million for 2008 hosts, Moscow, and the €26 million Athens was believed to have generated from staging the 2007 Final, according to previous MasterCard research.

According to marketing specialist at ESADE University in Barcelona, Carles Torrecilla, Barcelona city also will benefit from a possible 10% increase of tourists because of Football Club Barcelona champions title.

2009 champions league celebrations in Barcelona.

The German company Sport + Markt has carried out a study, perhaps the only, whose aim has been to calculate the number of supporters of each club football in Europe. Futbol Club Barcelona is the European club with more fans, with an estimated 44.2 million, Real Madrid is second with about 41 million, followed by Manchester United with about 37.6 million. The surprise is how the EU is the fifth club Zenit St Petersburg.

However if we measure the clubs for their revenues, Real Madrid is the top european Club. Thanks to former president Florentino Perez, ACS chairman. Perez’s policy resulted in increased financial success based on the exploitation of the club’s high marketing potential around the world, especially in Asia, it came under increasing criticism for being focused too much on marketing the Real Madrid brand and not enough on the football.

Top 20 football clubs in Europe by revenues 2007/2008 (source: Deloitte)

Florentino was an excellent manager but also, a real estate suspicios deal, with the sale of the 4 famous towers in Madrid for an extraordinary earnings of 501 milions Euros (source: El pais journal).

Read this newspaper article from “The independent”:

“The property deal that helped Real Madrid pay for players such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham is being looked into by the EU, who may order the club to repay some of the money.

The property deal that helped Real Madrid pay for players such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham is being looked into by the EU, who may order the club to repay some of the money.

Real’s president, Florentino Perez, sold their 15-hectare training ground in the heart of fashionable Madrid to city and regional authorities for a staggering £290m in 2001. The sale helped clear the club’s £177m debt, and left enough to pay unprecedented sums for Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Beckham. But the European Commission suspects the price was over-inflated and included a hidden public subsidy for what has been seen since the Franco era as Spain’s official state-sponsored club.

“We believe Madrid’s regional authorities may have overpaid,” Tilman Luder, the EU’s competition spokesman, said yesterday in Brussels. He warned that the club may have to pay back some money if the price exceeded the market value.

“We have sent a questionnaire to the Spanish government: to find out why they bought this land, at what price, and if they can prove it was at the market price. We suspect that the purchase price was influenced by the fact that this property had been reclassified, which increased its value,” Luder said. If doubts remain, the EU may launch a formal investigation.”

Barcelona second goal celebration in Rome.

Manchester United is number two and Footbal Club Barcelona is number three. Barcelona is the only one who didn’t accept a commercial sponsor. In fact, he pays to UNICEF.

Finally, the University of Navarre made a study of media impact on football clubs all over the world, which you can read from the excellent Blog eurosybalones from Luis Carlos Sanchez Martinez.