Sports apparel helps fill the kitty

Soccer shirts are now a major revenue driver globally

BEIJING - One of the world's top soccer brand experts said the Chinese passion for sportswear is a major income driver for the world's leading football clubs.

Sue Bridgewater, author of the recent book Football Brands, published by Palgrave Macmillan, said Chinese people walking around wearing replica soccer shirts does not just boost the revenue of sportswear manufacturers.

People wearing the colored strips of Manchester United, Chelsea or F.C. Barcelona on the streets of Chinese cities also helped the football clubs to charge more for broadcasting rights because they attracted more viewers.

According to research by Bridgewater, a quarter of people of student age in China had at least one international soccer shirt.

"The merchandise helps build a loyal fan base in markets such as China and drives broadcasting revenue," she said.

"Once you have broadcasting in place you have the potential for sponsorship revenues so it is important to have these deals in place."

The world's major soccer clubs license out the manufacturing of replica soccer shirts to leading sportswear manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas and Umbro.

But Bridgewater said the clubs see such licensing deals as a lure to capture the bigger fish.

"It is a bigger game than just selling soccer kits. Merchandise is a third of the revenue of most of the clubs but broadcasting is a major source of income since that drives everything," she said.

Bridgewater, 46, is internationally renowned for her work on the business side of soccer.

She is associate professor of marketing and strategy at Warwick Business School in the UK and is also director of its Centre for Management in Sport.

She is best known for running special teaching programs for soccer managers.

Some of her best-known graduates are Mark Hughes, the former Manchester City and now Fulham manager, and Stuart Pearce, the former England international and currently manager of the England under-21 side.

Bridgewater believes China is a huge potential market for soccer clubs around the world both in selling sportswear and broadcasting rights.

She said the English Premier League still gets three-quarters of its 1 billion pounds-a-year ($1.56 billion) broadcasting revenue from the UK alone.

If it could increase its exposure in China and other markets it could massively increase its revenue.

"Currently, it has got deals in place in more than 100 countries. It has got big potential to expand how much it is selling in these markets," she said.

Chinese soccer fans wearing the Barcelona strip with the name of leading striker Lionel Messi emblazoned on the back were in evidence recently when the club took on Chinese Super League champions Beijing Guoan at the Bird's Nest.

Clubs including Manchester United have been playing in China for some time in an attempt to extend their franchise deeper into the Asian market.

"I included Manchester United as a case study in my recent book and they spoke of the potential of the China market for them," she said.

"They have the advantage that they play in red, which is a lucky color in China. The China national soccer team also plays in red. From our research the Chinese would support almost any team in red no matter who they were," she added.

Chinese sportswear companies realize the value of tie-ins with soccer clubs.

In January, Xtep, the sportswear company based in Quanzhou, Fujian, announced a 7 million pounds, five-year sponsorship deal with English Premier League club Birmingham City.

The club was taken over by Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung last year.

The players have been wearing the Xtep logo on their shirts since the season resumed earlier this month. Xtep is also supplying the club with 800,000 pounds of soccer kit.

"Deals like this give Chinese sportswear manufacturers a lot of exposure," added Bridgewater.

The academic carried out specific research on international football brands in China following the World Cup in 2006.

One finding that emerged was that 97 per cent of respondents in a survey supported a second international soccer team.

"This made the market different from, say, the market in the United Kingdom. If Scotland doesn't qualify for a particular tournament, Scottish fans would support whoever England was playing against," she said.

"Chinese people sometime supported a club because of a particular player and if that player moved they might support the club he went to. The concept of second team support is much more common in East Asia," she said.

If people support more than one club, this gives greater opportunities for sportswear manufacturers to sell their goods to a wider range of people.

Bridgewater said the leading English Premiership clubs were stepping up their efforts to market themselves in China with a number now having websites in Chinese.

"I think this is an indication of the type of potential they see in China," she said.

Bridgewater acknowledges the big breakthrough could come if China were to host the World Cup itself.

Wei Di, the new head of the Chinese Football Association, indicated China was ready to bid for the 2026 tournament earlier this month.

He said it would provide a boost to China as a soccer playing nation, guaranteeing a place in the finals for the national side as the host nation.

"China made a big success of the Olympics and if they decided to put themselves behind running the World Cup I am sure they would run it incredibly well. It is actually a very profitable tournament to stage and brings in a lot of money," she said.

She said all the major sportswear brand owners were focusing their attention on China since it was now the key market to aim at.

"It is a massive sports goods market. It is a big market for consumer goods generally but this is particularly the case in the sports area where you have the big international brands against strong domestic ones also," she said.