Bundesliga No.1 in Shirt Sponsorship

The Premier League doesn’t usually come second to anyone where money is involved, due to its worldwide commercial appeal. But that changed today when figures released by “global sports marketing consultancy” SPORT+MARKT has Bundesliga teams outdoing their English counterparts in shirt sponsorship earnings.

Here are the numbers: total money paid to Bundesliga 1. clubs this season to have players torsos plastered with logos: 102.9 million euros. Total paid to Premier League clubs: 85.5 million euros.
There are multiple reasons for this. One is the pound’s newfound position of being weak against the euro. Another is the fact that three, count ‘em, Premier League clubs don’t have sponsors. West Ham’s sponsor XL went under and no one seems keen to have their name on West Brom’s shirt. Meanwhile Aston Villa took the moral high ground by giving commercial sponsors the cold shoulder and carrying the name of children’s hospice Acorns for no cost. Which makes it very hard not to like Randy Lerner.

Hopefully this turnaround in commercial fortunes represents the beginnings of something we all want: a levelling of the commercial playing field for Europe’s big leagues. Obviously the Belgian Jupiler League is never going to compete with the Prem. But is it unrealistic to hope that one day the major European leagues (and not just Prem, La Liga, Serie A) can compete on equal terms for big name players?