Do shirt sales pay for transfers?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ม.ค. 2023
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We’ve been there every transfer season, a big transfer is justified because “they’ll pay the club back in shirt sales alone”. But will a player really be able to recoup their transfer fee from flogging shirts?
Abhishek Raj explains how shirt sales work, how much a club earns on average from selling kit, and whether it ever justifies a transfer. Illustrated by Marco Bevilacqua.
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#Transfers - กีฬา
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What PSG did with Jordan collab. Shows the ingenuity of the marketing department to attract not only the US market but also the young hype market.
Never saw a American wearing a psg jersey
Lol I think the numbers would tell a different story here.
@@_viresh_ You underestimate the brand value of having celebrity’s such as Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, etc. at the PSG Stadium in PSG shirts - It’s not about how many Americans buy PSG shirts it’s about Visibility, NIKE-Jordan PSG shirts introduces PSG to Jordan/Basketball fans in the US
It’s cringy tbh, I rip anyone I see in a psg shirt unless I’m in France
@@GuinessOriginal The real question is: " is lionel Messis shirt for PSG, cheaper than the Argentina shirt"?
I think the idea comes from Beckham signing for Madrid for 20m ish... The club then signed massive sponsor deals and pretty season tour deals in Asia that were reported to be more than his transfer fee.. But mostly came from non shirt sales
Certainly from that Galácticos era, though the idea/perception was already in place from the Galácticos that came before Beckham iirc.
EDIT: So that's Luís Figo - signed in 2000 for €60 million from Barcelona. (thanks, Wiki)
This channel truly is a goldmine for any football fan!!
I remember hearing in a radio show a couple years back that Nicklas Bendtner actually made his transfer fee back in shirt sales when he signed for FC Copenhagen
only a legend like lord bendtner could
He bought all the shirts though.
I’d believe it cause I’m pretty sure he was signed for free 😂
Amazing graphics, straight to the point video (not milking the topic to make it 10 minutes or longer), well expalined. This channel is awesome!
Short answer no. Al-Nassr isn't expecting to sell $200 million of Ronaldo shirts each year.
Most of the football fan now know they even exist is a big deal for a country which is looking for recognition(to host 2030WC)
I think 200M are for that not for for shirt sales😅
Well they didnt buy Ronaldo for 200 mil
True but at the same time I don't even think they mind this that much :D
The saudi has already unlocked the infinite money glitch, so money is nothing but toilet paper to them. I think their main purpose of buying CR7 is for his brand name and to improve their images.
the country overall is likely to benefit much more than that in extra tourism income from rich ronaldo fans who want to watch him against significantly lesser opposition every weak
As a UTD fan this video screams Shinji Kagawa to me. Very talented player despite not having the best of times at UTD. Fergie went for him because he fitted the profile on the pitch, but undoubtedly there were commercial intentions. I think first japanese player in the Prem? Hot talent, national hero in Japan so we can break into the Japanese Market to drive utd's sales etc. Marketing genius by fergie
They already covered this in Tifo talks
(the best show in tifo irl)
It's funny that you used an Argentina shirt in the thumbnail since international teams don't make transfers and I assume that Argentina will keep selling Messi shirts forever as they still do with Maradona.
The more interesting question is do football clubs sell shirts of stars that are gone at other clubs and old legends? Like is it even legal for Barcelona to sell MEssi shirts right now ? Or would they need Messi image approval. And can two or more different clubs sell shirts of the same player even though he is playing somewhere else?
No but the customer can put custom name
Yep Barcelona still sell Messi's shirt...nd unsurprisingly it's the most expensive in their store ...i think it was already agreed upon...even his 7th ballon d'or is at camp nou museum
Could you cover the same but for national team shirts? Thank you
The only players that have ever recouped their transfer value in shirt sales have probably been players that cost only a couple million (like Ronaldo to Man U the first time) and then became iconic figures after developing rapidly and having their short sales boom. Also they probably had to have been at the club for a while to recoup.
You can’t really count Messi since he costed Barcelona nothing.
I'm sure Messi's shirt sales, while at the club, more than paid back the money Barça spent for this HGH💉
With the figures you give Liverpool made £41 million with Nike in 2022.
You say that the commission per shirt is roughly 7.5% and the rest of the 20% comes from the up front payment but then when calculating Liverpool’s annual revenue assume a 20% cut per shirt sold in addition to the £30 million up front.
If they got 7.5% per shirt as you state is the norm earlier in the video they’d have made almost £11 million with 2.9 million annual shirt sales taking their total to £41 million, less than their up front New Balance fee
What happens if the sports shop does shirt printing in house? When I was growing up, you'd buy the blank, and tell them who you wanted on the back and they'd print it, are those tracked?
Still happens, although the biggest retailer of shirts is now the club itself through online sales.
It's a big part of what's missing from this video. Seems very poor on Tifo's part to ignore it because it's a big chunk of money going to the club.
Thank you for this, I have so many arguments with people when they say the shirt sales will cover costs.
Same, ive been telling people this for years but they dont wanna hear it
@@Ccccc-mi3tr To many bandwagon jacks who like to talk. lol.
it's the most moronic, annoying cliché in football
I would love to know what the current numbers are for Messy's Argentina Jersey.
The only thing you can actually look at is the pure amount in increased sales from last year. United maybe sold a lot of Ronaldo shirts last summer, but how many of the buyers bought a Bruno or Rashford shirt the year before?
Finally, a sensible comment. The only way to gauge is the delta and that too is only relevant if 1 superstar was signed that window.
I don't buy shirts anymore so I don't fuel any of this utter madness
These videos are so brilliant
The particular stars in a team can greatly influence shirt sales. For example PSG have Messi, Mbappe and Hakimi, players whose performance in the World Cup last year eclipsed contemporaries. After the drama sales of PSG shirts with the numbers of these three players should be expected to increase considerably in 2023. For comparison no similar effect in the same period will be felt by other teams.
And they pay them waaaaaay more.
Now what?
You're comparing a hypothetical to another hypothetical. Come off it.
It's hard to make money when you multiply a big number with a tiny per-unit number. 5% is €2.5 per €50 shirt
@@superAweber very true but according to this vid its more like 10%, especially for big clubs and shirts retail around 80 euros so 8 per shirt. Now if 2-3 million shirts are sold it only pays around 20 million in total , enough for paying wages of a couple bench players only
Lovely, a tifo upload😌
You're ignoring the retailer cut.
I understand why reports used to ignore this large portion of the sale because it used to be so widely spread between thousands of different companies but that has increasingly reduced as online retail has become more prevalent.
The main point of sale for any clubs shirt is now their own online store and because of that the club directly gets a 15%-30% cut of every shirt they sell, just as the high street stores always used to.
With those stores mostly consigned to a bit-part player in shirt sales, now, this video looks outmoded.
I think you guys talked about this in a Tifo IRL as well!
Which is to say, no. Not even close.
I wonder if a club will manufacture their shirts themselves one day.
Sure you don't get an upfront fee and you have to acquire the know-how and the machinery to print your own shirt, but in return you get to keep 100% of the revenue.
For the very biggest clubs this might be extra revenue to be exploited, cutting out the middleman.
Venezia is doing exactly this in Italy, and quite well!
You would need to fight Nike and Adidas ect in marketing and advertising in stores.
@Ramone that's why they mentioned big clubs, a club like man u or arsenal isn't gonna have any problems with competing marketing wise with Nike
The issue is that its more then just making the shirts. Its the distribution and dealing with stores on selling them. For big clubs its just cheaper to sign a deal get money and let Nike, Adidas, etc deal with everything else.
the important part is not even manufacturing, its the distribution and logistics. the logistics network that giants like adidas and nike have are very difficult and costly to build
When Ronaldihno came to Queretaro FC his 2 season contract was paid in full by the jersey sales. They sold out in 1 week.
They had Pirma as the brand but by the next season they secured puma as the new jersey design.
But was the wages only right? Didnt have transfer fee
I think you argue against yourself with the Pogba example. United sold 4*1.85 = 7.4 million shirts out of the almost 10 million. Paying about 75 %of the fee is a very significant amount of the transfer, so that example would absolutely argue that shirt sales can pay for players in a very high degree.
If Pogba would have been a larger success and signed a contract extension they surely would've made the money back and more.
Besides the shirt sale big clubs do have their retail store which they can earn more income through shirt sale.
Should've talked about the case of Ronaldo joining Juve. The amount of shirts spld DID infact cover the 100 mil transfer fee.
Whens the pod coming back?
Short Answer : No
Was one of these also made sometime in the last few months or year or so? Could have sworn I watched one of these already
Nice
In dw kick off video it says it do not always pay the transfer until it is a big player.
it never does
You did a similar videa about a year ago I believe
Great video. And thanks for saying ‘Maths’ and not “Math’.
I guess you can call me promoter based on all my jerseys 😅. I’m the prime target.
Your voice is masterpiece 😇
I would say that this video was a bit unnecessary, but on the other hand, you can be amazed at the amount of people that actually believe that a star player can recoup their transfer fee and/or wages from shirt sales.
i want all the shirts
I want all your shirts
The athletic already did explain the economics of shirt sales
It seems to me that shirt *sponsors* are disproportionately prominent for the cash they bring in. It's an unspoken shame that glorious moments from a club's past are stained by whichever contemporary company had money to spend on sponsoring, especially when that company later collapses. IMO it would be a purer, more egalitarian game if they weren't allowed.
Wishful thinking!
Liverpool are actually making even more than stated in the video, as the RRP of Nike shirts have been upwards of £69.99.
They also get 20% of all Nike produced LFC gear, not just shirts. I have heard a figure of £80 million banded about. Don't forget though there is VAT and retailer margin as well as manufacturing and distribution costs, to account for, that's perhaps where the £50 comes from (£12 of it is VAT alone).
50 pounds is good for math but football shirts from big clubs are more in the range of 75 to 90 pounds. so liverpool did get significantly more profit from it than in the new balance deal.
Only true fans know that Jacques de Bones did this video a year ago
According to a recent video by another sports youtube channel, they don't. The manufacturers keep a majority of the cut of shirt sales
Los grandes clubes deberían negociar eso. Les están viendo la cara de tontos.
What about getting better sponsors? For example Lionel Messi got Barcelona some lucrative brands to advertise on Barcelona shirts. It may be an indirect benefit but I think it plays a huge part too
Big brands would sponsor barca messi or no messi.
It's Barcelona, They would still get it regardless
@@Ccccc-mi3tr That’s obvious but having a player like Messi gets you better deals. Now Barcelona is effectively selling off the club to get sponsors like Spotify
@Danny Tallmage Big signings do move numbers man. Look at the impact Messi had on PSG and Ronaldo has on AL Nassr.
Obviously not, and is they indeed could recover 150 million or so through shirt sales, then the transfer bidding literally will start close to that mark, as all teams will trivially be willing to pay what they are guaranteed to get back😂.
But it's more nuanced than that, based on marketing, fan base and their deals with the shirt manufacturer... But my point is the same...
No matter how rich a club is, if others are also rich, then you are forced to pay literally everything that you have to, to retain/buy them from the competition.
Speaking of shirts I saw an Argentina shirt with Messi on it three stars and Champion written on it. Never thought I would see that.
Cr7 cry(7) all night
Depends on player & transfer fee. United did recoup the CR7 re-signing fee from shirt sales. You’ll never cover his salary with shirt sales though…
it's funny how people actually think shirt sales do
I think "pogba shirts" should become the new standard international unit of a footballer's value.
2:20
I don't get it, if Pogba shirts sold for about 1.85M shirts per year and Man U got 20% of that, wouldn't that be like 15-25 pounds per shirt?
Which would be way more than 30M pounds per year and then actually paying for the transfer in like if not 4 then for sure 5 seasons?
Tifo, you changed units between Messi and Pogba, this is making it a bit confusing
Like you wrote Messi revenue Barcelona got and total
But for Pogba you only stated avg amount of shirts
Like the revenue would've been appreciated for better context
glazers united transfer strategy until recently
real ones remember the tifo talks about this
Why would they need to sell a million units per player to trigger the commission? That's a flaw in your methodology for pogba. Secondly there's multiple years of shirt sales
It's the million(which you are guessing about) on all the shirts that is a trigger.
no. simple as.
No…but people still get fooled by it
this makes it even more baffling that we keep seeing such basic designs from shirt manufacturers, particularly Nike. there's plenty of shirts both modern and historical that people have and will purchase purely for the appeal/fashion of it, so surely there's no downside to being more experimental as there will always be a solid amount of base-sales from domestic fanbases anyway.
They probably have to pay more to design and market the "bespoke"kits
Wasn't there a rumour Ronaldos 90milion fee was earned back alone only by his shirt sales? At the time it broke all the records and Ronaldos hype at the moment makes it believable. Some knows the answer?
Considering what they charge now for a rag of plastic, yes I think we're single handedly paying for each new transfer.
But can't other variables like image rights, increased sponsorship deals, higher attendance figures due to the desire to see the superstar play or train, etc, help in recouping the transfer fee? Just asking.
Not to cover the full Transfer cost+ wages.
You can however use it to gain popularity in nations where there isn't a lot of traditional support. (Especially korea,,, China etc)
And exploit that in several ways, but the main point still stands
Not really. Only the very top clubs can buy the very top player (who will ahve pulling power to put bums on seats in the stadium). These very top clubs already have close to full week in week out attendances. So no it doesn't really increase a lot of revenue.
Lets assume it did increase a club's average attendance by 5000 (which is huge). 5000 * £40 = 200,000 * 19 (home games) = £3.8m
The idea that a transfer is paid for with shirt sales is absurd from the beginning. If that was the case, anyone could buy the best players in the world for each position and pay for them with shirt sales. Not to mention, why would a team sell a player if they could get the same value just by selling shirts while keeping the player in the team?
Official Nike Liverpool shirts cost way more than 50 quid, so LFC def has made more money on the deal.
That background music 🎶🎶
Still no Pele
Lol counterfeit football shirts are avaibale cheap online.
U can buy Argentina shirt with 3 stars for $ 6 including shipping
I was hoping you would have Shed light on Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus deal as i recall newspaper articles saying that Juve had recovered the 100 Million they paid for his transfer within a few weeks of his moving to Turin through his image rights and shirt sales. Was that factual or PR BS?
I’m a Brazilian who has always supported Liverpool and I’ve bought a new Jersey just because Nike now commands it.
It’s easier to access Nike in Brazil rather than New Balance
Didn’t you do this already? If you talk about Ronaldo at Juve, I’m going to have serious déjà vu..
Edit: You DID do this video on Tifo IRL, and it was a revelation. It was near the peak of the absurdity. Did one of the people who strokes the checks finally take a look at the content you were making and, horrified, demand you stop? That’s understandable from abroad, commercial perspective, but as a perplexing and polarizing guilty pleasure? Chef’s kiss.
Shirt sales haven't been a major thing since players were bought and sold in the thousands.
It's crazy that messi(adidas) makes money for nike with shirt sales and ronaldo(nike) did that for adidas
Remember all those Utd fans claiming that Ronaldo's shirt sales in the first week paid his transfer fee?
it's a bit disingenuous how you compared the total nike shirt income to just the upfront NB income. There's a lot of what-ifs, but if you assume that the NB shirts would have sold the same, then that's 1.9 million shirts worth of variable bonuses that you just ignored when you compared the two deals. But regardless, I can easily believe that Nike is capable of selling many more shirts than NB in general. I can also easily believe that, as a result, those variable bonuses would not have made up that 15 million difference. I don't doubt at all that Liverpool is making more profit by switching to Nike, but that 33% number you claim is flat out wrong based just on the information you gave in this video.
I think part of the point was that NB don't have the same scale of production and distribution capabilities that Nike has, and so wouldn't have been able to manufacture and sell anywhere near that those additional 1.9 million shirts.
I don't think al Nassar is paying for Cristiano with sales alone
No chance can you get a new genuine shirt for £50 nowadays
why was pogba the example? the first example that came to my mind was Ronaldo to Juventus. i wonder how much juventus recouped in sales
nowhere near enough to cover his transfer fee is still the answer. Ronaldo to Juve (also because of covid) was a financial disaster for Juve. Worst mistake our board ever made since taking over in 2011. Even without covid I would have said it is a massive risk and should not have been done.
@@aldobonaso3481 i only asked that question because there was an article following his transfer that stated juventus sold $60 million worth of ronaldo shirts within 24hrs. clearly there was some financial upside at the time
@@randommage1 yeah realistically, if those numbers were accurate, that's only about 6-10m euros in Juve's pockets. And I doubt it was that much.
Did Joe not already do this on Tifo irl?
Nope
🤘
It was always clear to me that it's a myth. Just do the math. There are a lot of other costs involved.
If it doesn’t they still make a whole lotta money 😎
Why pay 50 dollars for a Messi shirt? Just go to Bali for vacation and you can buy it for 2 dollars.
why don't they just nickname one of the kids in the youth team "Messi" or "Ronaldo", then theres no need to do the transfer 🧠
No they don’t! Conversations closed hopefully once and for all
Oh hey look its a tifo talk with the insanity removed
I'll be honest, if I'm forking out 50-60£ for a shirt, I'm putting MY name on it
There are two sets of people.
1. Those who are stupid and think shirt sales do cover the costs.
2. Educated people
Your first point doesn't make sense
and then there is you, nethier of them.
needs to mention that new balance was very poor at distributing liverpool's shirts, always out of stock and unavailable, with the brand not nearly having the same spread and presence as nike over equivalent areas.
If not for shirt sales, United would have gone bankrupt years ago
Pogba's shirt sales not poggers
First
First one hahaha
Money talks! New Balance produced better shirts than Nike have and at a fairer price point.
no, its just a meme
Ronaldo and Juventus 😂
Who would buy a Pogba shirt? He was dreadful.
So the video ignored the cr7 and Messi transfers?
amazing how we Africans get left out even the simplest of animations. XD
I’ve not understood anything, on a 70€ shirt how much money are they making???
Why is the guy talking like a lawyer to a judge? I did not study business, actually I fix cars.
seriously? Not hard to understand 10-20% 😅😅 for a shirt that sells for 70 euros, most clubs only make between 7 and 14 euros on each shirt that is sold (and sometimes that is only after more than 1 million shirt sales, before 1 million they make nothing because they have received a large fee upfront, but it depends on the agreement between the club and the sponsor)
@@aldobonaso3481 1 mil euros of sold shirts or 1 mil shirts sold?
@@davids8127 20% of what exactly? Shirts sold? Revenue by the nike? The sponsor bill? So Juventus makes 10€ of a 70€ shirt??
Nike making 60€???
I think you guys too did not understand
A fixed amount every season + the variable fee.
The variable fee is calculated on the number of shirts after 1 million sold. So if a club sold 2 million shirts, the variable fee will be calculated on 1 million shirts, which would be around 7% of the value of those 1 million shirts.
@@BlancoMD the sponsor pays Juventus 30m euros a season for the rights to make their shirts. In the deal they agree that for their 30m euro upfront fee, Adidas will get to keep all the profits from the first 1m shirts sold. After the first 1m shirts sold, Juve will then make about 15% of every shirt sold (about 10,5 euros if the shirt sells for 70 euros), and Adidas keeps 59,5 euros. This is how most sponsorship deals are structured, but they will all be slightly different depending on how the clubs and shirt sponsor have negotiated the contract.