Juventus vs Barcelona: The winner can only be one

The 14/15 season in Champion's League is coming to an end. On Saturday, 5 June two great and historic teams will meet in Berlin, trying to win the title. Both had an incredible year, having won both the championship and the national cup in their countries. However, only one will win the treble.

In the 8 games played between the two teams, Juventus is leading with 4 wins, Barcelona has 2 and other 2 games ended equal. In their fixtures for Champions League there is an equilibrium as each team has 1 win with 2 games ending equal, all for the Quarter Finals phase.

If history shows Juventus, if the game would be played in monetary terms, Barcelona would be the absoloute winner. It has a squad valued at approximately €600 million, where on the other hand Juventus has a market value of €320 million.

In a quick comparison between the two teams we could see that in theory Barcelona has the advantage, but football is a game of 11 players against 11 and everything is possible. However, numbers have their own importance. Let's have a quick look on them.

Team	Barcelona	Juventus
Market value	€ 591,5 million	€ 320 million
Transfer spendings (2014-2015)	€ 157 million	€ 44 million
Transfer revenues (2014-2015)	€ 80 million	€ 30 million
Highest market value	Messi (€ 120 million)	Pogba (€ 50 million)
Foreign players on squad	50%	44%
Champion's League trophies (Champions Clubs' Cup)	3 (1)	1 (1)
Last Champion's League trophy	2011 (against Manchester United)	2003 (against Milan)
2014 -2015 Champion's League results (W-D-L)	10-0-2	7-3-2

Apart from the interesting stats that we saw above, this match has some interesting stories to tell. Luis Suarez will play again against Giorgio Chiellini after the 2014 World Cup game between Uruguay and Italy, where the Italian defender was bitten by Suarez. After this game, the Uruguayan striker was banned for 9 matches for  Los Charrúas and 4 months from any football-related activity.

We hope that nothing similar will happen on Saturday. Especially in the last game for Xavi Hernandez with Barcelona as he will join Al-Sadd in Qatar. He joined the first team on 1998 and since then he won every possible tittle. Will he win another one? We will know on Saturday night. Before that, let's watch a video that FC Barcelona prepared for Xavi. 

What do you think that will be the outcome on Saturday? Please comment or vote above.

The value of the last 16 teams in Champion's League

We are used, like it or not, to measure almost everything in monetary terms. Football couldn't be an exception with millions of Euros spent for star players every season. However, it is only a factor among others that contribute to the football ecosystem. Teams and players prove their capabilities in the court. In this article we will have a look on the economics of the Uefa Champions League best 16 teams for this season.

The group stage is over for the 2013/14 season with no huge surprises. Manchester City managed to qualify to the next round after last year's catastrophe (not qualified even in the Europa League with only 3 points collected). The biggest surprise for this season was Juventus, not qualifying to the last 16, losing their last game against Galatasaray in a 2 days battle due to bad weather conditions in Turkey last week.

As for the 16 qualified teams, they have an accumulated market value of €5,2 billion. Real Madrid is on the top of the list with more than €580 mil. in market value with Barcelona being in the second position with a million euros difference. The gap between Real and Olympiacos (the Greek champion and last in the market value index) is more than €500 mil. In the table below you can have the full details:

 Team                              Value                    Country

Real Madrid CF	583.500.000 €	Spain
FC Barcelona	582.300.000 €	Spain
FC Bayern München	487.200.000 €	Germany
Manchester City FC	472.750.000 €	England
Chelsea FC	458.750.000 €	England
Manchester United FC	405.000.000 €	England
Paris Saint-Germain FC	361.250.000 €	France
Arsenal FC	355.500.000 €	England
Borussia Dortmund	293.800.000 €	Germany
Club Atlético de Madrid	255.000.000 €	Spain
AC Milan	219.500.000 €	Italy
FC Zenit	205.000.000 €	Russia
FC Schalke 04	184.300.000 €	Germany
Galatasaray AŞ	157.350.000 €	Turkey
Bayer 04 Leverkusen	137.100.000 €	Germany
Olympiacos FC	72.150.000 €	Greece

Participating in Champions League is very important for the clubs' economics. In order to understand this let's have a look the economic impact of last season. During the 2012/13 season, the revenues of the 32 teams of the Group stage exceeded the amount of €900 mil. Juventus earned the most (€65 mil.) due to big market pool revenues (€45 mil.). Bayern, last season's champions, earned €55 mil, €10 mil. less than last year's Italian Champion. But what are the sources of these revenues? Uefa divides them into:

• Group stage fee (fixed amount for all the teams participating in the group stage)
• Performance bonus (according to their performance within the group)
• Market Pool (value of the television market in each country)
• Participation in knock-out phases (fixed amounts in every stage)

Participating in Champions League is very important for all European teams, both for economic reasons as well as for prestige. It provides a good source for revenues but also for global recognition as it is transmitted around the globe. 

However, on the other side of revenues is the cost parameter. A lot of teams, in Europe mainly, are spending massively. For this purpose Uefa has found Financial Fair Play, a measure to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn. More details for this initiative can be found in the official Uefa website here. It is early to see whether it will have an impact on football economics. 

We will be here to watch it together.

The Pric€ of Football

The new Champions League begins and will end in May in Lisbon with 32 teams competing for the title, in a competition offering prestige and million of Euros to the participants. Bayern Munich will try to maintain the title with Josep Guardiola looking for his 3rd trophy as a coach. In the same time Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea want to return to the top. All of the above contenders have new coaches and very attractive teams. Let's not forget that Chelsea is also last Europa Cup's title holder.

We don't know who will be the winner in the end of the season, but we know the teams' ranking in terms of Market Value. The Market Value is the sum of economic values of the players each team has. The total Market Value of the 32 teams in Uefa Champions League for 2013/2014 season exceeds €7 billion, increased by %7,27 compared to last year. First in the list is Barcelona, with an estimated Market Value of €587 million, far above the Market Value of Viktoria Plzeň, which takes the last place of  the list with €20 million. You can see in the following tables the teams in the top 5 positions as well as in the bottom 5. 

                                           Top 5

Team		Market value	ø-Market value	Country
FC Barcelona		587.300.000 €	23.492.000 €	Spain
Real Madrid CF		571.500.000 €	24.847.826 €	Spain
FC Bayern München		483.650.000 €	18.601.923 €	Germany
Chelsea FC		475.750.000 €	17.620.370 €	England
Manchester City FC		469.750.000 €	19.572.917 €	England

                                        

                                         Bottom 5

Team		Market value	ø-Market value	Country
FC Basel 1893		49.900.000 €	1.848.148 €	Switzerland
FC Steaua Bucureşti		42.650.000 €	1.470.690 €	Romania
FC København		24.550.000 €	1.022.917 €	Denmark
FK Austria Wien		21.650.000 €	866.000 €	Austria
FC Viktoria Plzeň		20.000.000 €	869.565 €	Czech Rep.

You can see from the tables above a huge difference between the teams. For example, the 3 teams in the bottom of this ranking have values less than the average value of Real Madrid. The gap is very big. However, money don't play football; they help the teams buy players but within the 90 minutes of a game there are 11 players against 11 and everything can happen.

What do you believe?

Please share your thoughts with us! 

*All values are based on data collected on 4/9/2013 

Champions League from a financial perspective

Champions League knock-out phase offers big battles and potential great emotions. The game between Real and Manchester United is definitely what every fan is waiting for! However this article is focused on the economic perspective of the tournament.

The two big knock out contenders Real Madrid and Manchester United have two of the highest market values. The Spaniards €601 mil and the English €441 mil. It  remains to see on the pitch the quality of these squads and also how will Cristiano Ronaldo experience his return to Manchester. 

In the group stage however there were two big clubs eliminated. Chelsea the previous year’s champion with a market value of €387 mil didn't qualify to the knock out phase as well as the other English giant, Manchester City (€498 mil in market value). Especially City “managed” to break the negative record of points collected by English teams in Champions League, Group stage. 

On the other hand Malaga, in their 1st appearance in Champions Leagueand 2nd in European competitions in general, qualified having one of the lowest market values among the 16 clubs (€98 mil).

Observing the market values of the qualified teams, we find Barcelona having the biggest (€656 mil) and Celtic (from the same group) the lowest (almost €60 mil). It is worth mentioning that Celtic won Barcelona which has 10 times its market value.

On average the qualified teams have a market value of €278 mil where on the other side the ones that didn't qualify have an average of €136 mil. The 32 participating clubs in Champion’s League Group Stage had an accumulated market value of €6.6 billion almost the same as Malta’s GDP.

Of course money is not the only criterion of a club’s success on the competition but is a facilitator. We can then see from the above that money not always guarantee success. Motivation is not always related to figures. There are other elements that can lead to success, like in the case of Greece in the European Championship in 2004 when with players of lower market value than other teams became European Champion. For instance at the moment the market value of Greek national team is €83 mil and Messi has on the other side a value of €120 mil.

The future will hopefully offer us nice football games, a lot of surprises and emotions. In the same time the spending attitude of football clubs should be moderated and better regulated. Financial fair play is in this direction but remains to see if will be implemented. 

Keep Walking Greece!

When a nation is so close to default, sports cannot be of any importance. However sports give us a great opportunity to see that Greece is not a country of lazy people who don't do anything else than drinking coffee next to the beach and tax evading. If you haven't been to Greece or met someone from Greece, probably this is the picture you have for this small but historical country.

Greece is the country that hosted the original ancient Olympic Games, and the modern ones in 2004. Especially for the last ones most of foreigners didn't believe that we will finally be able to organise them as we were not working hard. Despite their lack of faith we managed to organise a very successful event without any major problems with everyone being satisfied.

Despite the good impression we created we also acquired big amounts of debt as organising a global event like this, is too costly. This is the reason why Italy decided in the last moment not to bid for the Olympic Games in 2020.

Another example of Greek success against general opinion is the European Football Championship won by Greece in 2004. Noone believed in this team (like today noone believes in an economic miracle from Greece) but the whole team believed and with the help of Otto Rehagel, a German coach, we managed to do one of the greatest surprises in global sporting history. Of course the contribution of "Mr. Heracles" is huge but the point is that we do not need a German Gauleiter (the party leader of a regional branch of the Nazi) but someone to BELIEVE in us. Of course Mr. Rehagel is one of the most respectable Germans in Greece and we owe him one of our happiest moments in our lives.

Of course noone will ever forget, at least the Greeks, the big win of our Basketball National Team against Dream Team, the National Team of the United States. It was in Japan in 2006, for the FIBA World Championship, when once more against predictions we did it, we won probably the best team in the World.

All these are some examples that show that we, Greek people, are capable of great things. There should be a motivation and not pension or wage cuts. These measures diminish the motivation and increase the anxiety. We need inspiration and not Troika's advice.

We know we are not a rich country, rich in economic terms, but we are rich in feelings, in beautiful and sunny islands and rich in history that noone can ever take from us. We are a country of 11 mil. inhabitants that has less people than Lady Gaga's and Justin Bieber's followers in Twitter. However we are proud that a lot of great things in this world have a Greek origin like DEMOCRACY, which is forgottent nowadays.

So please don't behave to us like we are "junk" like Standard and Poor's rated Greek Bonds. We deserve respect from everyone because when talking for a nation that provided a lot to this World (for sure not any World War) noone should disrespect us. Greek citizens are responsible for this situation in a  percentage but not in the whole. Countries which lend us money in order to buy military equipment from them, with bribes, should change their behaviour and respect the Greek citizens more. 

DON'T UNDERSTIMATE THE GREEKS 

WE WILL KEEP WALKING EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO

Is Milan cursed?

Milan is inside every target they set in the beginning of the year. They are 1 point behind Udinese who sit on the top of Campionato. They are also qualified on the Top 16 in Champion's League 2 points behind Barcelona and with a home game against last year's winners.

However, despite their performance on the pitch they are various reasons so far this season not to be happy in Milanello. It was firstly Gennaro Gattuzo who had a serious eye injury which threatened his career. He remained two months out of training but now he is back and participated today in his first training after his eye injury. Gattuzo in his 13th season in Milan will become 34 this January. He started his career in Perugia passing from Rangers and Salerno before joining the Italian Champions.

Then it was "Tonio", Antonio Cassano aged 29, who had health problems but now recovers from a heart surgery a few days ago. Cassano was transfered from Sampdoria last January for €1,7 mil. He started his career from Bari in 1999 and then played for Roma before joining Real Madrid. Our wishes are with Tonio and we wish him a quick comeback to football without any further health issues.

The 3rd reason not letting Milan to concentrate on their following obligations is Cavaliere. Silvio Berlusconi, the 3rd richest Italian according to Forbes, among other businesses is the owner of A.C. Milan. He was forced to resign as Italy's Prime Minister as he lost the majority in the Italian Parliament. He is a very active but in the same time controversial person. He is accused for sex scandals and also criticised for keeping his assets in Mediaset, the largest broadcasting company in the country, while being Prime Minister. Despite his political problems he still remains loyal to his team. 

So far Milan proves to separate their performance to the problems they face off the pitch. It seems that Milan is still concentrated on its targets. It remains to see if they can continue on this rythm. What a better game to show its strength, against Barcelona next week for Champions League. Let's enjoy the game. 

Manchester divided!

This is the time for the big game in Manchester. Manchester United faces Manchester City. Unlike past years, Manchester City leads the championship, 2 points ahead of United. Ready to benefit from a possible draw is Chelsea facing QPR away.

American owners of United meet their Qatari counterparts in a game where Carlos Tevez will not perform as he is banned from his team, following his refusal to play as a second-half substitute in the game against Bayern last month for the Champions League. Earlier this week Sir Alex Ferguson (25 years United's Coach) agreed with Roberto Mancini's (2 years in City's bench) handling on Carlos Tevez issue. Ferguson had similar problems with Tevez while he performed for United.


Manchester United surpassed last year Liverpool in League titles with 19 against 18. Manchester City on the other side won their last League title in 1968! Are they capable of becoming English Champions after 44 years? We should wait until May but before that we will watch the Manchester derby and see if the investment from City's owners is capable for the win against City.

This season began with a 3-2 win for United against City for the Community Shield, a revenge for last year's defeat in the FA Cup. In 160 games United has 67 wins against City, 24 more than their counterparts, when 50 games ended without a winner.

For another transfer market, City invested heavily in buying players with the amount passing €92 mil. much less than the previous 3 years when on average they spent €162 mil. On the other side United bought mainly young players worth €57 mil. one of them being De Gea, Van der Sar's replacement.

Both teams have very talented players. Especially this season Kun Aguero and Wayne Rooney have a very good start of the season with the Argentianian scoring 8 goals in 7 games and Rooney 9 goals in 7 games. Aguero shows on the pitch the reason why City spent €45 mil. this summer to take him from Atletico de Madrid. But is he able to score tonight in his first Premier League Derby against United and help City win again in Old Trafford after 2008? We will found out in a couple of hours. Until then we will stay tuned for this big game.

Football against Crisis

I am back to share my thoughts on football and it's relationship with Economic Crisis.

There are a lot of debates in Europe for Greece's rescue plan and for the terms that will help both Greece and Europe breathe normally.

Of course economic problems play an important factor in people's lives but it is not the end of the world. Greece will survive and we should prepare for the next step. 

Football offers a good reason to forget for a couple of hours all the problems we face and celebrate, in case of win. 

Last week was the moment for Greek people to celebrate the win of the football national team against Georgia and the qualification to the 2012 European Championship, for 3rd consequtive time, in Poland and Ukraine.

Greek citizens do not anticipate to win the Championship again, after 2004 in Portugal, but it is a good reason to dream. Dream that Greece will survive and do the unbelievable once more. In 2004 we had Otto Rehagel, a German coach, now we have ... Angela Mergel with Nickola Sarkozy .

Does Greece need a German to survive? 

History will show if the decisions made today will have the possitive effect.

Until then let's forget crisis with football, let's dream the unbelievable.

Porto ... An example to follow

Despite the drought in football economics, Porto is providing an outstanding business model in the football industry. They buy players in low prices and sell them in a much higher price.
However this is also the case for Porto's coaches.
A few weeks ago Villas Boas went from Porto to Chelsea for 13,6 million pounds. Villas boas became thus the coach for the highest transfer fee ever paid.

Bruno Alves was transfered last year to Zenit in Russia for € 22 million, a player that costed nothing as he was playing in Porto's youth team.

Another example is Lisandro Lopez moving to Lyon for €24 million, when Porto bought him from Racing, Argentina for almost €7 million.
Last Thursday Atletico acquired Falcao for 40 million euros when in 2009 gave River Plate only €5,4 million.

Despite selling top tier players and even coaches Porto remains succesful. They dominate the Portuguese Championship with 7 titles the last 9 years. They also won Europa League last sason.

Is it a matter of successful scouting, good networks or just a matter of good timing?

Despite the answer to that question, this is the way teams should work and in this way they will not have to worry for Financial Fair Play sanctions from UEFA, a topic to be discussed  in another post shortly.

For the moment let's watch this week Champions League games and the draw on Thursday.

A new season soon to begin...

We are in the end of July and football clubs are giving their pre-season games!
However their squads are not yet finalised. A lot of clubs are searching for players that will add value and help them achieve their goals!

So far we do not see big transfer fees from the teams as the economic situation does not help on this direction. As the transfer window will close in nearly a month from now, we need to be patient and give a thorough outlook in September.

Football fans are anticipating to see whether Barcelona will keep on the same extraordinary level or if other teams can find ways to conquer the top!
Can Real Madrid with Jose Mourinho in his second year in Bernambeu, beat Barcelona?
Will Liverpool and Juventus recover from last year's crisis?

We will find it out together.

What we can discuss for the time being is only rumours.

So please stay tuned on Sports-development.

You can follow me as well on  Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you a lot for your support.

Welcome to Sports Development

Hello all sports fans!

This is my personal blog for my biggest passion ... sports!

It is an attempt to explore the continuously changing and challenging environment of Sports Marketing.
In a series of articles we are going to find out together interesting things on various Sports topics from a business perspective.

However this is not supposed to be a monologue but a sharing of thoughts which need your challenge.

Thus your comments would be of great importance for the success of this attempt.

So let us now begin!