sportingintelligence reports that German consultancy firm PR Marketing has revealed Manchester United and Liverpool are the two top English Premier League team in terms of global shirt sales. They are also close to the top in terms of global merchandising sales.
Dr Peter Rohlmann and his team at PR Marketing conducted the research on sales from 2005 to 2009. "All of our data was as a result of market research, company or club information and from individual contacts."
According to their analyses the top clubs sell 1.2 million to 1.5 million shirts per year each. Manchester United is Nike's best seller and Real Madrid is Adidas' best seller.
It is interesting to note that while Real Madrid is the best in terms of shirt sales for Adidas, Liverpool tops the Adidas list in terms of overall merchandise sales and this includes kits, boots, branded balls and even clothing and bags.
Liverpool's commercial director, Ian Ayre, said, "It is clear that we are Adidas's highest selling football club - Adidas advised us we were their highest selling club."
The Premier League has four teams out of the top ten in shirt sales, including Arsenal and Chelsea.
Italy's Serie A is well represented also with Milan, Inter and Juventus.
There is also an interesting correlation between the top 10 shirt sellers and the 10 clubs who have currently been identified as the richest clubs by Deloitte in terms of earnings.
Dr Rohlmann clarified his process and said, "Because of the fact that most of the clubs and the kit suppliers do not publish their shirt sales, you have to analyse information over a longer period to find reliable data. Our research [published by sportingintelligence today] encompass the period from 2005 to 2009.
"Oscillations are normal because any sporting success or lack of success drives shirt sales, sometimes up, sometimes down, as does the acquisition or sale of particular stars. For example, look to Olympique Marseille. Their average shirt sale over the last five seasons is about 350,000 replicas per year. But if you refer exclusively to 2009-10, when they won the French championship, adidas sold nearly 500,000." (euFootball.BIZ)
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