Club managment

TOP 75 EUROPEAN CLUBS BY BRAND VALUE

After calculating enterprise value for TOP100 clubs (https://managementoffootball.com/top-100-european-clubs-by-enterprise-value/) in 31 European leagues, I have calculated Brand value of TOP75 clubs from the same leagues.

What is brand value? Brand value is value stated in money somebody would be ready to buy your brand for. It is defined through logo, brand name, and everything what is perceived as indivisible part of your brand identity.

Why is it important? “A brand encompasses the name, logo, image, and perceptions that identify a product, service, or provider in the minds of customers. It takes shape in advertising, packaging, and other marketing communications, and becomes a focus of the relationship with consumers.” Further on, Wikipedia states, that brand equity, defined in marketing as “the worth of a brand in and of itself – i.e., the social value of a well-known brand name” is important for determination of price structure.

By Wikipedia, Interbrand classifies these uses of brand valuation in three categories:

1. Financial applications (e.g. mergers and acquisitions, balance sheet valuation, investor relations)
2. Brand management applications (e.g. brand portfolio management, resource allocation)
3. Strategic / Business case applications (e.g. brand architecture, brand repositioning)

When we talk about methodology, there are different methodologies for calculating brand equity by Wikipedia:

1. The cost approach (amount of money which someone would use to create the equivalent of observed brand),
2. The market approach (it is based on comparison of market price of other brands)
3. The income approach:
   1. Price premium method (price premium it generates comparing with non-branded product similar quality)
   1. Volume premium method (volume premium it generates comparing with non-branded product similar quality)
   1. Income split method
   1. Multi-period excess earnings method
   1. Incremental cash flow method or Excess Margin
   1. Royalty relief method

*More about specific brand methodologies you can find in (Clark, R. (2013): Measuring the Value of Brands) on link: http://www.valcoronline.com/PDFs/Valuing%20Brand%20Equity_10-7-13_vFINAL(rc).pdf

The same logic used in calculations of enterprise value is used here as well. A number of “things” might influence on brand, or if you want strength of brand influence on number of “things”. And those “things” make “footprints” for brand value in the world around us. So, first goal was to identify as many “footprints” as possible and collect data about them. Data I have been using were data which are not data from financial reports. Instead, we have been using a spectrum of external (not from club documents or reports) and exclusively publicly available data.

Same as in enterprise value, the final goal was to find the algorithm in the standardized model for the spectrum of clubs from the lowest brand value in Europe to clubs with the highest enterprise value in Europe (from 0mil € or something less to 1500mil€). For both, enterprise value and brand value, the second goal was to find an algorithm which is time resistant as long as possible. Finally, the algorithm was found using different analyses in inferential statistics and I have made the list of TOP75 clubs in Europe by brand value (MoF further in text).

Same testing was used for brand value as for enterprise value calculation. Before release, an algorithm in a standardized model was tested in several ways. First, algorithm results were checked by logical brand value in reality for the whole span of club values, from lower valued clubs as well as high valued clubs (span should go from 0 to 1500mil€ in the logical sense). The second quality check was confirmed by statistical analysis rules. The third was a comparison with brand value calculated by KPMGs spin-off, Football Benchmark (https://www.footballbenchmark.com/library/football_clubs_valuation_the_european_elite_2022); comparing results of enterprise value with KPMGs spin-off, Football Benchmark we receive 97% of statistically positive significant correlation between results. Forth was using data from years before instead of one, last year.

I have been looking on 11 external areas as “footprints” of what’s happening within the club for a period of time. Those areas are 1. success in European competitions (UEFA), 2. investment in the team, 3. social networks, 4. team structure, 5. value of the team, 6. Sale-buying, 7. stadium, 8. attendance, 9. domestic competition, 10. general environment and 11. football environment. Through different stages of research, we have been using in total more than 170 different variables to find the final standardized algorithm. Also, we have been using data about single variables from 5 years before and for some variables even 10 years before.

We have been analyzing 227 clubs from 36 European leagues. 31 leagues are from the 1st national tier and 5 leagues are from the 2nd national tier:

1	ESP – La Liga
2	ESP – La Liga 2
3	ENG – Premier league
4	ENG – Championship
5	GER – Bundesliga
6	GER – 2. Bundesliga
7	FRA – Ligue 1
8	FRA – Ligue 2
9	ITA – Serie A
10	ITA – Serie B
11	TUR
12	POR
13	NED
14	SCO
15	SVI
16	ROU
17	UKR
18	BEL
19	RUS
20	GRE
21	POL
22	SER
23	CRO
24	AUT
25	HUN
26	CZE
27	DEN
28	NOR
29	SWE

In the analysis were included all clubs from the Big 5 leagues and the best clubs from other listed leagues. More clubs per league were selected from the following leagues: Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Belgium, English Championship and Russia (*this year’s results are not affected by the war in Ukraine for Ukraine and Russian clubs)

Nr.	Club	State	BV  mil €
1	Real Madrid	SPA	1377
2	FC Barcelona	SPA	1348
3	Manchester United	ENG	1303
4	Liverpool FC	ENG	1273
5	Bayern Munich	GER	1183
6	Manchester City	ENG	1143
7	Chelsea FC	ENG	1013
8	Paris Saint-Germain	FRA	918
9	Tottenham Hotspur	ENG	820
10	Arsenal FC	ENG	767
11	Juventus FC	ITA	678
12	Borussia Dortmund	GER	612
13	Atlético de Madrid	SPA	533
14	Inter Milan	ITA	501
15	AC Milan	ITA	378
16	Leicester City	ENG	317
17	Everton FC	ENG	313
18	SSC Napoli	ITA	305
19	AS Roma	ITA	280
20	RB Leipzig	GER	277
21	Olympique Lyon	FRA	263
22	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	GER	251
23	AFC Ajax Amsterdam	NED	233
24	Olympique Marseille	FRA	215
25	Valencia CF	SPA	208
26	FC Porto	POR	188
27	Aston Villa	ENG	187
28	West Ham United	ENG	183
29	AS Monaco	FRA	180
30	Real Sociedad	SPA	175
31	Wolverhampton Wanderers	ENG	172
32	SL Benfica	POR	170
33	Newcastle United	ENG	168
34	SS Lazio	ITA	157
35	Sevilla FC	SPA	153
36	Southampton FC	ENG	148
37	Galatasaray A.S.	TUR	146
38	Atalanta BC	ITA	143
39	LOSC Lille	FRA	136
40	Real Betis Balompié	SPA	134
41	ACF Fiorentina	ITA	130
42	Athletic Bilbao	SPA	129
43	Sporting CP	POR	125
44	FC Schalke 04	GER	124
45	Fenerbahce SK	TUR	123
46	Crystal Palace	ENG	122
47	Eintracht Frankfurt	GER	122
48	Borussia Mönchengladbach	GER	115
49	TSG 1899 Hoffenheim	GER	112
50	PSV Eindhoven	NED	108
51	Brighton & Hove Albion	ENG	105
52	Villarreal CF	SPA	103
53	Stade Rennais FC	FRA	96
54	VfL Wolfsburg	GER	95
55	OGC Nice	FRA	92
56	Leeds United	ENG	86
57	Fulham FC	ENG	86
58	AFC Bournemouth	ENG	84
59	Hertha BSC	GER	83
60	FC Zenit	RUS	82
61	Red Bull Salzburg	AUT	81
62	Watford FC	ENG	79
63	Feyenoord Rotterdam	NED	79
64	VfB Stuttgart	GER	77
65	FC Girondins Bordeaux	FRA	76
66	SV Werder Bremen	GER	75
67	West Bromwich Albion	ENG	74
68	Rangers FC	SCO	72
69	Sheffield United	ENG	70
70	Torino FC	ITA	70
71	Club Brugge KV	BEL	70
72	Trabzonspor	TUR	69
73	Stoke city	ENG	68
74	AS Saint-Étienne	FRA	67
75	Burnley FC	ENG	66
	TOTAL:	22,161 bil €

The total value of TOP75 clubs is 22,161 bil. € coming from 12 European leagues with 6 clubs from the 2nd national tier:

	Number of clubs in TOP75	Total brand value of clubs per league	Percent of brand value of clubs from single league in TOP 75	Average brand value of clubs per league
ENG	23	8649	39%	376
SPA	9	4159	19%	462
GER	12	3125	14%	260
ITA	9	2642	12%	294
FRA	9	2042	9%	227
POR	3	483	2%	161
NED	3	419	2%	140
TUR	3	338	2%	113
RUS	1	82	0%	82
AUT	1	81	0%	81
SCO	1	72	0%	72
BEL	1	70	0%	70

In the above table, values of clubs from a single league were summarized to identify differences between leagues in TOP75 brand value. The highest brand value of clubs from a single league in TOP75 is having English Premier league (8649mil€) followed by Spain La Liga (4159mil€), German Bundesliga (3125mil€), Italy Serie A (2642mil€) and French Ligue 1 (2042mil€). Mosta valuable club from second tier is Fulham (86 mil €). English Premier league is pointed out with more than double as value as Spain La Liga.

If we look at the column “Percent of brand value of clubs from single league in TOP 75” we will see again that the English Premier league pointed out.  85% of clubs from the Premier league, are part of TOP75, followed by German Bunesliga (67%), Italy Serie A (45%), Spain La Liga (45%) and France Ligue 1 (45%).

The column “Average brand value of clubs per league” is the value from all clubs from one league in TOP 75 divided by the number of clubs in the observed league. Leagues with a higher number of clubs will have less average if they have the same number of clubs in the TOP 75 as leagues with fewer clubs in it. Spain La Liga is having is having the highest average (462mil€) followed by Premier league (376mil€), Italian Serie A (294mil€), German Bundesliga (260mil€), and France Ligue 1 (227mil€). In Enterprise value, on first position was Premier league while second was Spanish La Lia.

Those two columns (“Percent of brand value of clubs from single league in TOP 75”, and “Average brand value of clubs per league”) might indicate the concentration of overall brand strength.

If we compare results from the MoF BV list and results from KPMGs spin-off Football Benchmark, clubs which fall of the KPMGs spin-off Football Benchmark list are 1. FC Köln, Celtic FC. On the other side FC Porto, AS Monaco, Real Sociedad, SS Lazio and others came in.

Again, in Brand value as in Enterprise value, it is noticeable that generally Italian clubs are generally higher valued in the Mof BV algorithm than in KPMG’s spin-off, Football Benchmark.

The characteristic of this method is that at any moment value of any club in Europe can be calculated based on publicly available data. Although results were tested with KPMG’s spin-off Football Benchmark and sales which really happened, using financial reports for another step of testing the model would be beneficial. Characteristic of this model is that it is standardized and not influenced by any possible misleading in financial reports.

Model by itself reveals what from reality influences most on the brand value of the clubs and as such, they can be used for setting relevant and measurable goals for the top management of the club, and for setting KPIs for the top management of the clubs regarding either brand or enterprise value.

With enterprise value and brand value research finished, we are moving to next research:

1. The quality of human capital in club management is interesting as well as sports staff especially. So, on the list of next research is a calculation of:
   1. standardized model of quality of management of clubs and
   1. standardized model of quality of sport management of the club..

Moving from management of the club to the performance on the pitch, research which is almost to be released is about differences per TOP5+4 leagues, trying to identify models how to win, not to lose, score goals or create chances.

If you have any comments, we would be grateful to talk about this, what do you think about the possibility of this kind of calculations of brand value, what do you think about results and do you have maybe any idea about improving this research (combining with financial reports would, of course, be very useful but here is an idea to use date, not from financial research) and about further research. Special thanks goes to all guys from www.managementoffootall.com

Check out this article on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/calculated-top75-european-clubs-brand-value-2021-slaven-marasovi%C4%87/

TOP 100 EUROPEAN CLUBS BY ENTERPRISE VALUE

publicly traded clubs included) without taking into consideration of market capitalization, debt, and cash? Yes, TOP 100 European clubs by enterprise value calculated!

After four months of research, I and my team were dealing with calculations of the enterprise value of TOP 100 European clubs using statistical analysis to find an algorithm that does not use data about market capitalisation, debt, and cash, but data from financial reports.

So, what is enterprise value? It is a value you would pay for business if you were aiming to purchase it or, a value you would receive if you would sell your business. The following formula is used to determine the enterprise values of publicly traded businesses:

Enterprise Value = Market Capitalization + Debt (short and long term) – Cash (and cash equivalents)

But what if you want to buy a club which is not publicly traded? There are several methods how for calculating it:

1.      Comparable Company Analysis (CCA)

2.      Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method

3.      First Chicago Method

4.      Asset-based method

All of these methods are in more detail explained on the following link (https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/valuation/private-company-valuation/ ), but one can find a lot of literature on the web.

I will just quote snapshots from definitions:

Ad1. The Comparable Company Analysis (CCA) method operates under the assumption that similar firms in the same industry have similar multiples.

Ad2. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method takes the CCA method one step further. As with the CCA method, we estimate the target’s discounted cash flow estimations, based on acquired financial information from its publicly traded peers.

Ad3. The First Chicago Method is a combination of the multiple-based valuation method and the discounted cash flow method. The distinct feature of this method lies in its consideration of various scenarios of the target firm’s payoffs. (Usually, this method involves the construction of three scenarios: a best-case (as stated in the firm’s business plan), a base-case (the most likely scenario), and a worst-case scenario. A probability is assigned to each case.)

Ad 4. The asset-based method is used when is more profitable to liquidate a firm than continue with business because with liquidation firm will have better cash flow than if it continues with business.

If you don’t know which method to use, help could also be found at „The International Valuation Standards Council” – IVSC or national agencies for evaluation of firms.

In this research, the goal was to assess publicly and non-publicly traded clubs to calculate their enterprise value. Since there is no share price for non-traded clubs, we have been looking for the club’s overall environment which would influence on share price to go up or down. There is a lot of literature about reasons for share price fluctuation generally, but also specifically for the football industry as well. Joao Duque and Nuno Abrantes Ferreira from Instituto Superior Economia e Gestao, Universidade Tecnica de Lisbao have found positive relationship between sporting performance and share price. José Allouche from Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris and Sébastien Soulez from Université Lumiere Lyon 2, Lyon have found that sporting results positively influence on share price after victory and vice versa. Further on, they have found that managerial decisions about running and investing in sporting facilities, sponsoring and positive financial results influence positively the share price and in case of unfavourable financial results influence negatively the share price. Also, they have found the relationship between human resources (players) and share price. Similar is found in Turkey regarding winning (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41343433), where winning in the European cup does not affect club stock share returns while winning in domestic matches does influence positively.

However, a number of “things” might influence share price, and those “things” make “footprints” for enterprise value in the world around us. So, our first goal was to identify as many “footprints” as possible and collect data about them. Data we have been using were data which are not data from financial reports, not data about share prices. Instead, we have been using a spectrum of external (not from club documents or reports) and exclusively publicly available data.

The final goal was to find the algorithm in the standardized model for the spectrum of clubs from the lowest enterprise value in Europe to clubs with the highest enterprise value in Europe (from 0mil € or something less to 3200mil€). The second goal was to find an algorithm which is time resistant as long as possible. Finally, the algorithm was found using different analyses in inferential statistics and we have made the list of TOP100 clubs in Europe by enterprise value (MoF further in text).

Before release, an algorithm in a standardized model was tested in several ways. First, algorithm results were checked by logical enterprise value in reality for the whole span of club values, from lower valued clubs as well as high valued clubs (span should go from 0 to 3200mil€ in the logical sense). The second quality check was confirmed by statistical analysis rules. The third was a comparison with enterprise value calculated by KPMGs spin-off, Football Benchmark (https://www.footballbenchmark.com/library/football_clubs_valuation_the_european_elite_2022); comparing results of enterprise value with KPMGs spin-off, Football Benchmark we receive 99.4% of statistically positive significant correlation between results. The fourth was sales which happened in 2021 in the UEFA report (https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0272-145b03c04a9e-26dc16d0c545-1000/master_bm_high_res_20220203104923.pdf). Fifth was using data from years before instead of one, last year.

We have been looking on 11 external areas as “footprints” of what’s happening within the club for a period of time. Those areas are 1. success in European competitions (UEFA), 2. investment in the team, 3. social networks, 4. team structure, 5. value of the team, 6. Sale-buying, 7. stadium, 8. attendance, 9. domestic competition, 10. general environment and 11. football environment. Through different stages of research, we have been using in total more than 160 different variables to find the final standardized algorithm. Also, we have been using data about single variables from 5 years before and for some variables even 10 years before.

We have been analysing 227 clubs from 36 European leagues. 31 leagues are from the 1st national tier and 5 leagues are from the 2nd national tier:

1	ESP – La Liga
2	ESP – La Liga 2
3	ENG – Premier league
4	ENG – Championship
5	GER – Bundesliga
6	GER – 2. Bundesliga
7	FRA – Ligue 1
8	FRA – Ligue 2
9	ITA – Serie A
10	ITA – Serie B
11	TUR
12	POR
13	NED
14	SCO
15	SVI
16	ROU
17	UKR
18	BEL
19	RUS
20	GRE
21	POL
22	SER
23	CRO
24	AUT
25	HUN
26	CZE
27	DEN
28	NOR
29	SWE

In the analysis were included all clubs from the Big 5 leagues and the best clubs from other listed leagues. More clubs per league were selected from the following leagues: Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Belgium, English Championship and Russia (*this year’s results are not affected by the war in Ukraine for Ukraine and Russian clubs).

Of all those clubs, the TOP 100 clubs by enterprise value are:

	Club	State	EV – mil€
1	Real Madrid	SPA	3139
2	FC Barcelona	SPA	3019
3	Manchester United	ENG	2867
4	Liverpool FC	ENG	2847
5	Bayern Munich	GER	2727
6	Manchester City	ENG	2540
7	Chelsea FC	ENG	2299
8	Paris Saint-Germain	FRA	2053
9	Tottenham Hotspur	ENG	1761
10	Arsenal FC	ENG	1623
11	Juventus FC	ITA	1558
12	Borussia Dortmund	GER	1347
13	Atlético de Madrid	SPA	1116
14	Inter Milan	ITA	1052
15	AC Milan	ITA	766
16	Leicester City	ENG	670
17	SSC Napoli	ITA	655
18	Everton FC	ENG	633
19	RB Leipzig	GER	625
20	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	GER	582
21	AS Roma	ITA	544
22	Olympique Lyon	FRA	542
23	AFC Ajax Amsterdam	NED	469
24	AS Monaco	FRA	451
25	Valencia CF	SPA	431
26	FC Porto	POR	401
27	SL Benfica	POR	377
28	Real Sociedad	SPA	356
29	Olympique Marseille	FRA	350
30	Wolverhampton Wanderers	ENG	346
31	Atalanta BC	ITA	344
32	Aston Villa	ENG	341
33	SS Lazio	ITA	326
34	Borussia Mönchengladbach	GER	312
35	Galatasaray A.S.	TUR	309
36	Southampton FC	ENG	305
37	Sevilla FC	SPA	292
38	TSG 1899 Hoffenheim	GER	274
39	Sporting CP	POR	274
40	ACF Fiorentina	ITA	272
41	West Ham United	ENG	259
42	Eintracht Frankfurt	GER	244
43	Crystal Palace	ENG	242
44	Fenerbahce SK	TUR	241
45	Newcastle United	ENG	239
46	Villarreal CF	SPA	237
47	VfL Wolfsburg	GER	233
48	LOSC Lille	FRA	232
49	PSV Eindhoven	NED	226
50	Athletic Bilbao	SPA	222
51	FC Schalke 04	GER	221
52	Red Bull Salzburg	AUT	207
53	AFC Bournemouth	ENG	204
54	OGC Nice	FRA	202
55	Real Betis Balompié	SPA	198
56	Shakthar Donetsk	UKR	184
57	FC Zenit	RUS	178
58	Torino FC	ITA	177
59	Brighton & Hove Albion	ENG	174
60	Stade Rennais FC	FRA	174
61	US Sassuolo	ITA	168
62	Fulham FC	ENG	168
63	Hertha BSC	GER	161
64	Watford FC	ENG	155
65	Club Brugge KV	BEL	149
66	PFC CSKA Moskva	RUS	141
67	FC Girondins Bordeaux	FRA	140
68	Getafe CF	SPA	139
69	Celtic FC	SCO	136
70	FC Spartak Moskva	RUS	136
71	RSC Anderlecht	BEL	135
72	VfB Stuttgart	GER	134
73	Burnley FC	ENG	133
74	Celta de Vigo	SPA	132
75	SV Werder Bremen	GER	130
76	Feyenoord Rotterdam	NED	129
77	SC Braga	POR	125
78	Udinese Calcio	ITA	123
79	AS Saint-Étienne	FRA	122
80	GNK Dinamo Zagreb	CRO	122
81	1.FSV Mainz 05	GER	120
82	Cagliari Calcio	ITA	119
83	West Bromwich Albion	ENG	119
84	Dynamo Kyiv	UKR	118
85	Bologna FC 1909	ITA	118
86	SC Freiburg	GER	116
87	Leeds United	ENG	116
88	UC Sampdoria	ITA	111
89	Stoke city	ENG	108
90	RCD Espanyol Barcelona	SPA	106
91	Olympiacos Piraeus	GRE	106
92	KRC Genk	BEL	104
93	FC Nantes	FRA	103
94	Swansea city	ENG	102
95	AZ Alkmaar	NED	101
96	Norwich City	ENG	101
97	Montpellier HSC	FRA	99
98	Trabzonspor	TUR	97
99	Lokomotiv Moscow	RUS	96
100	FC Basel 1893	SVI	93
TOTAL	50 414 mil€

The total value of TOP 100 clubs is 50,414 bil. € coming from 18 European leagues with two leagues from the 2nd national tier (English Championship and German 2. Bundesliga):

		Tot value clubs-TOP100	% of league clubs-TOP100	Average value-TOP100
1	ENG – Premier league	18349	95%	882
2	SPA	9386	60%	469
3	GER – Bundesliga	7226	67%	382
4	ITA	6332	70%	317
5	FRA	4468	55%	223
6	POR	1177	22%	65
7	NED	925	22%	51
8	ENG – Championship	700	21%	29
9	TUR	647	15%	32
10	RUS	551	25%	34
11	BEL	387	17%	22
12	GER – 2. Bundesliga	351	11%	20
13	UKR	302	13%	19
14	AUT	207	8%	17
15	SCO	136	8%	11
16	CRO	122	10%	12
17	GRE	106	7%	8
18	SUI	93	10%	9

In the above table, values of clubs from a single league were summarized to identify differences between leagues in TOP 100 enterprise value. The highest enterprise value of clubs from a single league in TOP100 is having English Premier league (18349mil€) followed by Spain La Liga (9386mil€), German Bundesliga (7726mil€), Italy Serie A (6332mil€) and French Ligue 1 (4468mil€). English Premier league is pointed out with almost double as value as Spain La Liga. Further on, English Championship is the 8th league (700mil€) in Europe by the value of clubs in TOP100 (German 2. Bundesliga is the 12th league by value (351mil€) of clubs from one league in TOP100).

If we look at the column “% of league clubs-TOP100” we will see again that the English Premier league pointed out, that 95% of clubs from the league, or 19 (Brentford is out) are part of TOP100, followed by Italy Serie A (70%), German Bundesliga (67%), Spain La Liga (60%) and France Ligue 1 (55%).

The column “Average value-TOP100” is the value from all clubs from one league in TOP 100 divided by the number of clubs in the observed league. Leagues with a higher number of clubs will have less average if they have the same number of clubs in the TOP 100 as leagues with fewer clubs in it. Again, the English Premier League is having the highest average (882mil€) followed by Spain’s La Liga (469mil€), German Bundesliga (382mil€), Italian Serie A (317mil€), and France Ligue 1 (223mil€).

Those two columns (“% of league clubs-TOP100”, and “Average value-TOP100”) might indicate the concentration of overall competition and quality of the observed league. A higher percent of league clubs and average might mean higher quality and competition in the league.

If we compare results from the MoF EV list and results from KPMGs spin-off Football Benchmark, the biggest positive differences are with the following clubs (MoF EV – KPMG EV):

	Club	MoF-KPMG (EV)
1	Liverpool FC	291
2	FC Barcelona	205
3	AC Milan	188
4	SSC Napoli	172
5	Leicester City FC	144
6	AS Roma	131

It is noticeable that generally Italian clubs are generally higher valued in the Mof EV algorithm than in KPMG’s spin-off, Football Benchmark with the highest percent of the difference in EV from KPMGs  (SSC Napoli 36%, AC Milan 32%, and AS Roma 32%).

Biggest negative differences (MoF EV – KPMG EV):

	Club	MoF-KPMG (EV)
1	Tottenham Hotspur FC	-151
2	Atletico de Madrid	-118
3	Atalanta BC	-110
4	Sevilla FC	-98
5	Paris-Saint Germain FC	-79
6	Villareal CF	-66

The list of 32 clubs from Football Benchmark is different from Mof EV list. Clubs which are on Mof EV list but not on Football Benchmark one, are RB Leipzig, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, AS Monaco, Real Sociedad, Olympique Marseille and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The characteristic of this method is that at any moment value of any club in Europe can be calculated based on publicly available data. Although results were tested with KPMG’s spin-off Football Benchmark and sales which really happened, using financial reports for another step of testing the model would be beneficial.

Model by itself reveals what from reality influences most on the enterprise value of the clubs and as such, they can be used for setting relevant and measurable goals for the top management of the club, and for setting KPIs for the top management of the clubs.

Although enterprise value is important when one is investing in the club, estimating the potential of an individual club and the gap which it can fill is of big importance as well. It depends not just on clubs’ inner potential (financial, human resources, community, infrastructure …) but also on football’s external environment and general environment and based on other research results that are interesting in combination with EV research.

Next research…

The quality of human capital in club management is interesting as well as sports staff especially. So, on my list of next research is a calculation of standardized model of quality of management of clubs and standardized model of quality of sport management of the club. Besides that, two research on the “to do” list is research about brand and research on talents.

If you have any comments, we would be grateful to talk about this, what do you think about the possibility of this kind of calculations of enterprise value, what do you think about results and do you have maybe any idea about improving this research (combining with financial reports would, of course, be very useful but here is an idea to use date, not from financial research) and about further research. Special thanks go to Nikica Krnić, Konstantin Kornakov and Josip Korda.

Check out this article on LinkedIn:

TOP ONE FACTOR FOR RUNNING SUCCESSFUL FOOTBALL CLUB

Here is top one factor for running a successful football club…  

It’s PEOPLE!

Well, like in any industry, but also as well like on the pitch – placing the right people in the right positions and helping them to be prepared to use their maximum potential.  

To help them enjoy in what they are doing, and to help them perceive obstacles as challenge rather then problems. 

If you choose people (on and of the pitch), not just by expertise but also by alignment of their values to the same values others have – if those values are the same as Club has developed them with his community throughout history, there is very good chance to have good environment for development of successful club.   As same as you invest in players in the pitch providing them any support necessary, you can invest in other people (coaches, staff, administration, management…) …

Because – they are all part of the same chain. Players (and performance they present on the pitch) are “just” the last, still most visible but also, in most cases, most short-term part of chain. Players leave (almost all), others stay (almost all)! Helping those people “in the backstage” will make them feel happier, club will be more sustainable, and they will deliver more for the players, club and finally for community – for same passion which glues each unique club stakeholders together and makes this industry so attractive!