Demise of the Football fan

For a large extent of football’s history especially in England, the largest and most successful clubs were run by local businessmen. Run like family businesses as control was handed down through the generations with their primary aim being of making a mark in their local community. With the proprietor of the club known as “chairmen” rarely calling themselves owners, seeing themselves as upholders of the club that was ultimately owned by its fans and local community. This connection between the community started to fray in the 2000s as clubs’ revenue model changed, as owners started to appease their sponsors rather than the supporters of its club.

In 2013, Manchester United went for a preseason tour to Australia and were scheduled to play a game against the A League All Stars, an hour before kick off with a packed stadium, Manchester United refused to play the match. They reason for this refusal? The screen in the stadium displayed a Coca Cola logo and the club had recently signed a deal with Pepsi in the Asia Pacific region. The club’s commercial department had decided against playing the match with the Coca Cola logo being broadcast on the stadium screen in a stadium backed by Coca Cola. Just 15 minutes before kick off a deal was struck with Coca Cola being replaced by Mount Franklin signs, another Coca Cola product but not a rival product of Pepsi. Manchester United were willing to disappoint over 80,000 fans who had gathered from all across the country to watch their beloved club play and fans all across the world waiting to watch the game just to appease a sponsor. Displaying the growing power of sponsors and commercial revenue at the cost of the very thing that made the club a behemoth, its fans.

This is a recent phenomenon as just in 2007, matchday revenues were vital for the day to day running of the club. According to the Deloitte Football Money League report in 2007, the biggest football clubs in Spain and England averaged around 30% of their revenue from matchday income. With the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United having 38% and 43% of their income being generated from matchday.[1] Revenues generated from fans coming to stadiums in the two biggest and most decorated leagues in football were at an all time high. Thus, with more than a third of income being generated from match attendance and gate revenues, as clubs relied on fans filling the stadium as a crucial source of income. For most clubs in the Premier League, money generated from matchday income was the greatest source of revenue and fans were the lifeblood of the club, with a decrease in attendance deeply affecting the bottom line of these clubs.

But in the last decade or so a different picture has started to emerge as the divide between matchday revenues and commercial and broadcasting revenues has widened. This divide is only growing as clubs seem to have outgrown revenues from fans and rely largely on commercial and broadcasting revenues to fill their coffers.

In the Deloitte report of 2012 out of the 15 largest clubs by revenue, just Arsenal and Manchester United had greater than 30% of their revenue contributed by matchday income.[2] Quite a change from just 5 years back when the majority of the biggest clubs in the world had matchday revenues as a significant portion of their revenue stream.

Furthermore, in 2017 this gulf has only grown larger as clubs move away from gate receipts and club memberships as an essential revenue generator. [3]

In the Deloitte report of 2017, a very contrasting picture starts to emerge in respect to revenue generation from just a decade ago in 2007. For the three biggest leagues in football, matchday related revenues accounted for a measly 19% of total revenue. Filling seats in a stadium and selling club merchandise to fans on matchdays contributed to less than a fifth of total revenue for clubs across Europe. Thus the desires and power of the fans could now be overlooked when they are starting to increasingly become a smaller and minor aspect of a club’s revenue.

As clubs move away from what the millions in their fan base want to the millions generated from sponsors they are choosing to ignore their history and voice of its people. For example, Arsenal started to have over 15,000 thousand empty seats in their home games towards the end of last season as fans voiced their discord and disapproval of the current board and manager. In days bygone such a mass protest and empty stadium would have been a cause for concern for the clubs hierarchy who would have taken steps to please these discordant supporters. But in a time when this doesn’t really affect the club’s revenues and bottom-line, they can choose to ignore the fans concerns as they now lie on the bottom of the totem pole.  

In a world where clubs are competing with each other to become a super club with greater revenues, they are alienating the very reason what made them so “super”, the fans. Clubs are willing to bend over backwards to satisfy their sponsors as demonstrated last year when Real Madrid altered their emblem of more than 75 years due to a club sponsorship in the Middle East. Removing the cross that appears on their crest in the Middle East even though it was an homage to its origins of being the club of the Spanish royalty. In coming years, the voice of the fans will continue to diminish as desires of sponsors shall increasingly come to the fore and examples of Manchester United and Real Madrid become the norm rather than an aberration.

 Its these fans who supported the club through thick and thin, its these fans that stay and support the club loyally when sponsorships end or are cancelled after poor team performance. But its these very supporters being marginalised with football being turned from the beautiful game to the corporate game.

[1] https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Audit/gx-deloitte-football-money-league-2007.pdf

[2] https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Audit/gx-deloitte-football-money-league-2013.pdf

[3] https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html