The English soccer team has just lost Alex Ferguson, the manager that led the team to 38 trophies in 26 years, leaving big (make that impossible?) shoes for new boss David Moyes to fill. Speculation is rife in the British press that Wayne Rooney, one of its high-priced stars, could depart for a rival. And there’s still plenty of fan animosity toward owner Malcolm Glazer, who loaded the team with debt when he bought it in 2005 and turned 85 a few days ago.
Now the club is no longer the most valuable soccer brand in the world, according to Brand Finance, which describes itself as a brand valuation agency. The new champion is Bayern Munich, which not coincidently just won the Champions League tournament on Saturday. Also read: How German soccer dominance can grow in this age of austerity.
Brand Finance figures that the Man Utd. brand is worth $837 million, 2% less than it was a year ago. Don’t shed too many tears; it has a stock-market value of $2.9 billion. Bayern Munich’s brand value climbed 9% to $860 million.
Even with that drop at Man Utd., the English Premier League dominates the top of this league table, with five of the first eight. Overall, the brands of the 14 English teams that crack Brand Finance’s top 50 are worth a combined $3.1 billion; the eight German clubs on the list have a combined brand value of $1.9 billion.
Among other big moves, AC Milan’s brand value fell 10% to $263 million, though it held on to its 9th ranking, and crosstown rival InterMilan’s brand value slumped 30% to just $151 million. Paris Saint-Germain’s brand value leapt 34%, to $85 million and 24th place, aided no doubt by its domestic league trophy and the brief tenure of global branding maestro David Beckham.
No comments:
Post a Comment