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.