Bill Gates and Barca

What do FC Barcelona, the best football club in the world and American business magnate Bill gates have in common?

Today I like to write my blog about my favorite football club FC Barcelona. Watching last night’s match for the King’s Cup of Spain against Osasuna on Barca TV, there was a commercials that caught my attention. It was a commercial featuring Bill Gates wearing a Barca shirt and talking about FC Barcelona. Under the slogan 'More than a goal… End Polio. Meaning FC Barcelona has put itself at the service of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help improve its media message and global recognition, and thus facilitate programs and news about the eradication of the disease polio.

Last summer The Fundacio FC Barcelona and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed a collaboration agreement, that wishes to promote the campaign to get rid of the polio disease for good. The agreement between the two foundations wishes to speak out for awareness of the illness and encourage society and relevant organizations to join the fight against polio. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the The Fundacio FC Barcelona share the same objectives.

FC Barcelona and Bill Gates have a special sense of social responsibility. The two try to help those in need, life is not just about watching football or having fun, it is also helping people in need. FC Barcelona is known for its beautiful football, superstar Lionel Messi and many prices. But the club was also the first club in 2006 with shirt sponsor Unicef, the club donates 1,5 percent of their revenues to Unicef. What a beautiful combination of sport PR and caring.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are always looking for strong and prestigious alliances to join forces and give shape to their projects. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is like FC Barcelona  a family foundation which also defines the social message. That is why Bill Gates choose for this club, who already where doing such projects, for instance for their new shirt sponsor Qatar Foundations. I wish more big football clubs would follow the example of FC Barcelona and maybe we can than reach more people in need.

Soccer in the USA

Football commonly known as soccer in the USA, is rising since the country hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994. The term soccer is commonly used to refer to that sport due to the term football being used for another sport,  American football. The number one sports in the States  are still basketball, American football, baseball and  ice hockey. These sports are making billions of dollars every year, while soccer just makes 300 million dollar a year, soccer is still less popular in the USA than in Europe. 
The United States Soccer Federation is trying hard to market soccer in America. Last year they appointed German football legend Jürgen Klinsmann as the men’s national team coach. Last year New York Red Bulls signed two big players from FC Barcelona, Thierry Henry (Mister Arsenal see my last week’s blog and Mexican superstar Rafael Marquez). And of course the signing of David Beckham for LA Galaxy, the contract was 250 million dollars for five years.

Although MLS is also much younger than most other countries divisions, and has 19 teams in 2012, it is already the 12th most-attended premier division in the world. In 2006 MLS broke its all-time record for attendance at a regular-season match, which saw 92,650 spectators fill the  LA Galaxy. Although that claim is somewhat misattributed to the MLS game as it was one of two games played that night, the second being a match between two very popular football clubs in the Spanish speaking world FC Barcelona from Spain and Mexico's Guadalajara. On August 1, 2009, a friendly match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Barcelona at the Rose Bowl, drew a crowd of 93,137 fans. The last time a soccer match drew that many people in the United States was during the 1994 FIFA World Cup. barcaloco.com

The biggest impact of course has been the internet. Soccer fans in the States are quite different. But sites like bigsoccer.com and blogs, both for teams changed that. Reading these blogs I believe that the passion was there they just needed the outlet. Another big change has come on the TV side. ESPN Gol TV and Fox Soccer all show games live from Holland, England, Spain, Germany and Italy.  It is now much easy to watch the highest levels of world soccer on just about any day of the week in the States. This all was unheard of fifteen years ago. Now the market is also marketing big Europeans games via social media.

Football marketing in the U.S. will never be like here in Europe but it continues to grow. A recent review of attendance shows that soccer is enjoying higher per game attendance than basketball and ice hockey. It is at least going the right way.

Which club brands are the most powerful

Today i want to share with you wich club brands are most powerful in the Europe. This week I read a post on the ten best best known European football brands The article referenced a sport + mark 2010 study of brand recognition among football fans in the top five markets in France, Germany, Spain, UK & Italy.
I thought it might be interesting to look at this data and see which club brands were the most powerful. And see to what degree being aligned with a specific club  is a factor, in addition to sponsoring tournaments like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League or UEFA European Championships. So, let’s take a look at the Delloitte & Touche Money League of clubs along with the brands listed in the sport+markt survey associated with them.

1. Real Madrid –                     adidas (1), Coca-Cola (5), Audi (8), bwin (9)
2. Manchester United              Nike (2), AIG (6), Audi (8),
3. FC Barcelona –                   Nike (2), Audi (8), Unicef (15)
4. Bayern Munich –                adidas (1), Coca-Cola (5), Audi (8)
5. Chelsea –                             adidas (1), Samsung (10), Heineken (20)
6. Arsenal –                             Nike (2), Emirates (5)
7. Liverpool –                          adidas (1), Carlsberg (7)
8. AC Milan –                         adidas (1), bwin (9)
9. AS Roma -                         
10. Inter Milan –                     Nike (2)
11. Juventus –                         Nike (2)
12. Olympique Lyon –            Umbro (16), Orange (18)
13. Schalke 04 –                      adidas (1)
14. Tottenham Hotspur –        Puma (3), Carlsberg (7)
15. Hamburger SV –               adidas (1), Emirates (5)
16. Olympique Marseille –      adidas (1), Orange (18)
17. Newcastle United –          adidas (1)
18. VfB Stuttgart –                 Puma (3), Coca-Cola (4)
19. Fenerbahce –                     adidas (1), Audi (8)
20. Manchester City –             Umbro (16)

From the Sport+Markt list Reebok, Opel, Vodafone, Ford MasterCard and Sony were not represented by a club from the Delloitte & Touche Money League clubs? Strange looking at Opel who in 2001 where the most successful shirt sponsor.Vodafone is a massive sponsor of sport and had a run with Manchester United a few years ago from which they may still be associated with. Reebok sponsors Manchester United Ryan Giggs. Thierry Henry (Mister Arsenal) and  Iker Casillas in Spain. And formally kitted out Liverpool and Manchester City. AS Roma are the only club in the top 20 not linking with a big sponsor.

The big winner I think is Audi. They have partnerships with al big teams I the top five. With also allowed them to create the Audi cup in the summer, where all the big clubs feature. Adidas and Nike are also winners, but they were already big names in the sports industry. Adidas and Nike sponsor 15 of the 20 clubs in the top 20. AS Roma AS are the only club in the top 20 not aligned with a big sponsor. They are sponsored by Kappa (an Italian company specialized at the manufacture of sporting clothes and accessories) and Wind an Italian telecom operator.