Patrick Sayers

English 2010
Jim Beatty
7/14/16
Economics of the World of Soccer- With a Focus on England and America
The amount of money that revolves around the game of soccer makes it one of the
biggest industrys in the world. Over 2.3 billion dollars changed hands between European clubs
for player transfers in 2013 and spending has only increased since then (Kuper). The sports
popularity spreads around the world making it the perfect platform for businesss to try to
achieve success. Just as societys seen again and again throughout human history whenever there
is popularity and demand, there are large financial gains to be made. Unfortunately, when it
comes to popularity and financial gains, it seems to be human nature for corruption to seep in at
some level. Soccer is no different. To claim soccer has only negative influences due to its
corruption is to view the story from one side. To properly evaluate the overall effects of the sport
the key is the take a step back and look at the economics of the sport and the benefits they bring
to a nation.
The huge increase demand of the sport has led to huge amounts of money being poured
into the sport, most recently in the English Premier League(EPL) as they signed a 10.4 billion
dollar T.V. broadcast deal as companies look to capitalize on the popularity of the league
(Chaudhary). Sponsors invest in the league knowing their company name will be seen around the
world as making the EPL available to their country. The wealth from these deals has given the
league tremendous financial power when it comes to player transfers (Liu, Liu and Lu), but has
also given teams enough income to reinvest. Teams from the EPL spent a record amount on
players in recent summers. In the summer of 2014 Barcelona F.C gave Liverpool F.C 109 million
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dollars for Luis Suarez, while Real Madrid gave A.S. Monaco 107 million for James Rodrigues
(Ashler). These big name players attract more fans, and sponsors which means more ticket,
jersey and merchandise sales, all of which help to add to game day and yearly revenue. This has
allowed many teams to improve stadiums, build training complexes and increase the pay
structure of lower level employees. This growth filters down from the top to every level of the
league. Thousands of new jobs are also created as teams need new trainers, grounds keepers,
advertising specialists, and hundreds of other jobs that go into running a soccer club and league.
This is all possible because of the worldwide popularity of the soccer, but also the EPL in every
country. It is a business of its own, built in England, developed for over 100 years it shows a
model for leagues around the world, specifically the United States as it develops the MLS, to try
to follow.
The most successful businesses are ones that have a large customer base and figure out
ways to bring in more. Soccer fans make up a huge percentage of the population especially in
most of South America Africa and Asia, so business involved with soccer already have a huge
customer base. For companies willing to invest its not that expensive to make more fans, and
also customers at the same time. By providing cleats, soccer balls, and other equipment to
struggling third world countries companies like Adidas and Nike are helping to spread the sport
(Lue, Merchant and Nash). With that comes the knowledge that their logo will spread, and its
very likely that sales will increase in that area. Its this potential to tap into a new customer base,
to hook a new fan base, simply by broadcasting to larger TV audiences that interests
companies (Kuper 410). Its the ability of a business to impact lives, whether positively or
negatively that make business that are involved with soccer so valuable. Depending on how they
choose to invest their money, and reinvest they money that comes back in from fans and teams
can have a huge effect on the lives of fans, and people in general all over the world.
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As money begins to come in from any type of investment the real key is to take make
sure it is put in the right places, and reinvested properly. The key for the United States is to take
responsibility for their own soccer programs and youth systems. The English Soccer Federation
has been set up for over one hundred years (Kuper). Building a set up a support system for
players, coaches, trainers, and other sport related careers is key to helping the sport become selfsustaining, but it wont happen overnight. Proper, intelligent investment is crucial to ensure that
the country can begin to develop a league and player development system that fits with the rest
of the world. Teams, and business involved must be willing to give back to the sport, help
develop youth facilities, and help to build the sport from its base. By putting money and effort
into the roots of the U.S. soccer program supporting business can help the sport grow, thus
helping themselves, and also help the children, parents, and communities involved. If people are
benefiting than the sport will continue to grow here in the U.S. the way it already has around the
world.
Most important of all the U.S must capitalize off the popularity of soccer, the most
popular sport in the world, as it booms within the U.S. Only in the U.S. with NBC Sports can
you watch every game, every weekend of the British EPL season. Not even Sky Sports(the
United Kingdoms version of ESPN) broadcasts every game. Its great to use the popularity of
other leagues to bring attention and money into the sport, the difficult thing for individual
countries is to reinvest this money properly into their own soccer leagues. All the games played
by teams played in the MLS arent broadcast to American audiences. So living in America one
can watch every game from the English league, but not from the MLS. We need business to put
more effort in making the local product more available so the MLS can begin to grow and
develop the way European league have for years.

The MLS was established as a league in 1995, shortly after the country hosted, with huge
success, the World Cup of 1994 (U.S. SOCCER). Americans were encouraged to start playing,
watching, and supporting soccer. This sport, new to America, as well as a brand new
professional sports league came with new jobs, viewers, and provided a new outlet for many
young American athletes skills. New stadiums were built that needed employees at all levels,
teams needed employees, both on the sporting and marketing side of the sport. Sponsors also had
a brand new outlet and audience to spread messages to. The league has now spent twenty years
growing, learning, developing itself, its message and it its players. They must follow the
blueprints of the British and use the expansion of the MLS to help create new jobs and
opportunities for thousands (Lue, Merchant and Nash).
The next step is to remember to focus the attention and money back on the routes of the
countries soccer system. Its the children having fun playing the game today who will be the stars
of tomorrow. With the amount of money involved in the sport worldwide, the US has struggled
to set up a working youth development system that puts large amounts of the money that comes
from overseas corporate deals and other sponsors back into American soccer. Instead the system
seemed to be fundamentally flawed in its design, and focused on the needs of a few, wealthy, rich
white men and popular well known players from Europe who are past their prime, rather than the
development of youth athletes and soccer as a sport in general in America (Liu, Liu and Lu).
When there are large amounts of money involved, and a system designed to benefit a small
minority people immediately begin to blame corruption.
Corruption is one of the most common terms people associate with soccer. The huge
amounts of money to be made both by individuals and corporations lead high ranking people
involved in the sports governing body to invest in corrupt individuals to ensure results in certain
tournament elections. FIFA(soccers governing body) had long been corrupt, but finally when the
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US lost a vote they were quite confident of winning for the 2022 world cup to Qatar (U.S.
SOCCER), they began to about be vocal about FIFA and is corruption. There were no complaints
when bribes were paid to ensure that South Africa would get the World Cup, that was seen as a
great thing for that region and the game (Homewood). After the 1994 World Cup the U.S
realized the money that was involved in the game, and thus the money they had lost by losing the
vote. Tickets for the 2018 World Cup in Russia are already selling for over 1000 dollars each and
the U.S. was hoping to capitalize on this high demand and popularity (Petroff). They took the
moral high ground while recent reports seem to suggest Qatar greased a few pockets to ensure
they won the vote (Lue, Merchant and Nash). It was long past time that someone took a stand
against the corruption of FIFA even if the U.S. had only one clear motive for stirring the pot and
initiating the investigation, money.
Businesses depend on customers and in a world with a population of billions of people,
the number of soccer players and fans who can be integrated as customers is tremendous. The
important battle for the U.S. is too ensure that money is invested back into the league and youth
system. Soccer could provide a huge financial gains in the U.S. hundreds of jobs as the league
grows and the infrastructure develops. America must ensure the people making the choices about
reinvestment and development are honest. When those gains are spread back to the game in the
right way, people return that investment with love. Instead of customers they return as passionate
fans.

Works Cited
Ashler, Jason. 5 Soccer Players Who Teams Paid Around $100 Million For. 13 July 2016. 14
July 2016. <http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/the-5-most-expensive-soccer-transfer-feesever.html>.
Chaudhary, Vivek. How the Premier League's Record TV Deal Will Impact Football in England.
25 July 2016. 25 July 2016. <http://www.espnfc.us/english-premierleague/23/blog/post/2917119/how-premier-league-record-tv-deal-will-affect-englishfootball>.
Homewood, Brian. SOCCER-FIFA Faces $108 Million Deficit for 2015 -Finance Overseer. 26
Febuary 2016. 11th July 2016.
<http://af.reuters.com/article/liberiaNews/idAFL3N1645TA>.
Kuper, Simon and Symanski, Stefan. Soccernomics. New York City: Nation Books, A Member
Of The Perseus Books Group, 2014.
Liu, Xiao Fan, et al. "The Anatomy of the Global Football Player Transfer Network: Club
Functionalities versus Network Properties." PLOS ONE (2016).
Lue, David, et al. The Money. 2015. 10 July 2016. <https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/researchprojects/mediamarketsfootball-in-contemporary-europe/the-money/>.
Petroff, Alanna. 2018 World Cup Tickets Pass $1,000 mark. 6 July 2016. 10 July 2016.
<http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/06/pf/fifa-world-cup-ticket-prices/index.html>.
U.S. SOCCER. U.S.A Soccer. 2016. 12 July 2016.
<http://www.ussoccer.com/about/history/timeline>.