Ranking of Internationalization

Transcription

1 Ranking of Internationalization of Europe s Top-5 Leagues

2 Ranking of internationalization of Europe s top-5 leagues The internationalization of Europe s top-5 Leagues The internationalization of the German Bundesliga is in full swing after the Deutsche Fußball-Liga (DFL) has repeatedly accentuated the need for a stronger internationalization. In recent years, not only the number of news about international activities of the big clubs increased, but also of smaller ones. But how can we quantify the internationality of the Bundesliga compared to the other top-four European leagues from England, Spain, Italy and France? The answer to the question about the most international league and the most international clubs has been given by Advant for the first time in At that time, the Bundesliga ranked second behind the English Premier League. In order to point out the developments and changes during the last two years, Advant again provides a ranking about the internationalization of all 98 clubs in Europe s top-5 leagues. The ranking is based on five central criteria, allowing conclusions about the leagues and clubs status of internationalization. Along with the percentage of foreign partners in the sponsor pool (1st- 3rd sponsoring level), the ranking includes the number of languages, officially available through the clubs website, the percentage of foreign internationals in the clubs squad, the number of foreign Facebook followers as well as a key figure, considering whether and where a club has travelled abroad during the current season. The categories partners-

3 The Bundesliga is catching up strongly in terms of internationalization. hips, squads and club website were weighted with 25%, the category Facebook followers with 20%. Since Bundesliga clubs have, compared to their European rivals, an additional time frame for foreign trips during winter break, the factor training camp was only weighted with 5%. Bundesliga defends second place behind Premier League As a result, the English Premier League still has the strongest international focus. Being followed by the German Bundesliga which was able to defend its rank as runner-up in front of Spanish LaLiga Santander, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1. While the Premier League has only been able to increase its overall score by 1% since Total ranking of Europe s top-5 leagues Rank League Total score 1. Premier League Bundesliga Primera División Serie A Ligue , the Bundesliga managed to increase its score by 21% within the same period. This indicates that in regard to internationalization the Bundesliga is catching up strongly. FC Barcelona ranks first - Bayern Munich the only German club in top-10 Top-10 clubs by total score Rank Club Total score 1. FC Barcelona Real Madrid Manchester City Chelsea FC Manchester United FC Bayern Munich Paris Saint-Germain Arsenal FC Juventus Liverpool FC 46.4 This year, FC Barcelona is prevailing over national rivals Real Madrid, followed by an English trio: Manchester City, Chelsea FC, and Manchester United. English Premier League dominates with a total of five representatives within the top-10, whereas the only German club in the top-10, FC Bayern Munich ranks sixth with some distance. However, the Germans managed to catch up three ranks since Juventus FC, the only Italian club in the top-10, replaced its national rival AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain remains the only French representative in the top-10. #1 Top clubs with a high number of foreign partners With regard to the category partnerships, almost all top-10 clubs have mainly sponsors not based in their domestic country. Only FC Bayern Munich (40% foreign sponsors) and Juventus FC (45%) have a relatively low number of foreign partners and only rank 23rd and 18th in this category. On average, almost three quarters (74%) of the top-10 clubs partners are foreign companies. Maximum values of English clubs Top-10 category partnerships (factor 0.25) Rank Club Percentage of foreign partners in % 1. Chelsea FC Manchester United Manchester City FC Barcelona Arsenal FC Real Madrid Tottenham Hotspur Paris Saint-Germain Valencia CF Liverpool FC 62.5 exceed the mark of 90%, whereas

4 Bundesliga clubs websites with most language versions on average. Germans VfL Wolfsburg rank first in the Bundesliga ranking with a value of only 48%. In addition, the average value of Bundesliga clubs in this category has dropped from 25% to 20% since It also should be mentioned that especially the Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Valencia CF have significantly increased the percentage of foreign partnerships within the last two years. #2 Websites often only in clubs respective language Compared to 2014, the category website only shows some minor change. Manchester City still Top 10-category website (factor 0.25) Rang Club Homepage (language versions) 1. Manchester City FC Barcelona 9 3. FC Bayern Munich 8 Real Madrid 8 5. Chelsea FC 7 Manchester United 7 Juventus Turin 7 8. Paris Saint-Germain 6 Inter Milan Liverpool FC 5 FC Schalke 04 5 Borussia Mönchengladbach 5 leads this category with 13 versions of their website. Regarding leagues German Bundesliga finishes first with an average of 2.9 language versions per club, followed by English Premier League and Spanish Primera División with 2.7 language versions per club respectively. As in 2014, almost half of the clubs only provide their official homepage in their own respective language. Furthermore, the top-10 clubs in this category have hardly added new language versions. #3 High percentage of foreign internationals The squad s composition plays an important role in the clubs internationalization, especially with regard to internationals with a high level of reputation in their home countries. Chelsea FC benefits from this aspect with a peak value of 73% foreign internationals. In comparison, Borussia Dortmund represents Bundesliga s highest value with only 45%, followed by Bayern Munich (44%). Generally, English Premier League has the highest average percentage of foreign internationals (46%). German Bundesliga ranks second with 32% and an increase of 5% since This certainly shows the positive development regarding the Bundesliga s sporting competiveness. Top-10 category squad * (factor 0.25) Rank Club Percentage of foreign internationals 1. Chelsea FC Manchester City Atlético Madrid Tottenham Hotspur Real Madrid Manchester United 55.6 SSC Napoli Watford FC FC Barcelona Juventus 51.9 #4 Spanish dominance on Facebook The integration of social media channels plays an increasingly important role in the clubs internationalization process. One reason is the fact that clubs have to communicate with their global fans and deliver them constantly latest information. With over 90 million foreign Facebook followers each, Spanish top clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid rank first and second. The best German club, FC Bayern Munich, has been able to increase the number of its

5 FC Bayern Munich closes the gap on top clubs. Top-10 category foreign Facebook fans (factor 0,2) Rank Club Foreign Facebook fans (absolute) 1. FC Barcelona 92,394, Real Madrid 90,231, Manchester United 69,371, Chelsea FC 45,779, FC Bayern Munich 37,478, Arsenal FC 35,898, Liverpool FC 27,602, Paris Saint-Germain 23,119, AC Milan 22,921, Juventus Turin 22,051,382 foreign Facebook followers since 2014 by about 125%. The Germans currently rank fifth with more than 37 million fans. However the Spanish top-clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, but also Manchester United and Chelsea FC, rank well ahead. Other German clubs such as Borussia Dortmund (13m / 12th), Bayer Leverkusen (2.4m / 23rd) or FC Schalke 04 (2.3m / 24th), still have some room for improvement. The gap between the top-10 clubs and the other clubs is tremendous considering that the top-10 clubs have 47 million foreign Facebook followers on average, whereas the remaining clubs only have 1.4 million on average. Additionally, as in 2014, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea FC have more fans than the other 94 clubs in total. Nevertheless, the Bundesliga clubs were able to double their number of foreign Facebook followers. #5 Training camps as strategic decisions In the category training camp, it is noticeable that nine out of ten top-10 clubs have undertaken a trip outside of Europe. Only FC Barcelona stayed within Europe s continental borders for their training camps and friendlies. In total, 30 of 98 clubs traveled overseas last year, seven of them from Germany. However, the majority of the German clubs prefer domestic or European destinations, even though the Bundesliga offers a relatively large period of time in winter for travelling overseas compared to other leagues. Using the winter break for additional travelling overseas could be an important competitive advantage in the future for the Bundesliga and its clubs. Potential for Bundesliga especially in social media and partnerships While Bundesliga defends its second place among the top-5 leagues, the individual German clubs still have some great potential for improvement. Only FC Bayern Munich ranks within Europe s top-10 and even managed to climb from ninth to sixth place in the overall ranking. The next German clubs, Borussia Dortmund, ranked 15th, and FC Schalke 04, ranked 20th, were able to catch up nine and one position. VfL Wolfsburg (23rd) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (26th) complete Bundesliga s top- 5. From Bundesliga s perspective, it is also worth mentioning that in their first Bundesliga season ever, RB Leipzig ranks 8th in Germany and 33rd in Europe. Looking at the individual categories, there is still a lot of potential for Bundesliga clubs, especially when it comes to international partnerships. On average, German clubs cooperate with foreign partners at a percentage of only 20%. By comparison, the same value in English Premier League is almost 50% and in Spanish LaLiga nearly 35%. A similar pattern emerges in the

6 Bundesliga clubs could utilize winter break for additional travelling overseas. category of foreign Facebook fans. Bundesliga clubs have an average of 3.2 million foreign Facebook fans, whereas English and Spanish clubs have on average more than 10 million fans abroad. It remains to be shown whether the Bundesliga can catch up the distance to the English Premier League over the next years. However, for the Bundesliga it will be crucial to defend its second rank against the following leagues, in particular Spanish Primera División. Fortunately for the Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1 rank well behind. Quellen: - Result Sports - Advant Datenbank - Offizielle Vereinsangaben - Transfermarkt.de - Sponsors.de - Stadionwelt (Fachmagazin) - Desk Research

7 Total ranking of the 98 clubs of Europe s top 5 leagues Rank Club Lg. Total score 1. FC Barcelona PD Real Madrid PD Manchester City PL Chelsea FC PL Manchester United PL FC Bayern Munich BL Paris Saint-Germain L Arsenal FC PL Juventus F.C. SA Liverpool FC PL Tottenham Hotspur PL AC Milan SA Inter Milan SA Atlético Madrid PD Borussia Dortmund BL Valencia CF PD West Ham United PL Everton FC PL Crystal Palace PL FC Schalke 04 BL AS Roma SA Leicester City PL VfL Wolfsburg BL Stoke City PL Celta de Vigo PD Borussia Mönchengladbach BL Swansea City PL Bayer 04 Leverkusen BL West Bromwich Albion PL Southampton FC PL AS Monaco L Eintracht Frankfurt BL RasenBallsport Leipzig BL Rank Club Lg. Total score 34. Watford FC PL SSC Napoli SA SV Werder Bremen BL FSV Mainz 05 BL Hamburger SV BL Sunderland AFC PL Olympique de Marseille L Hertha BSC BL FC Ingolstadt 04 BL Sevilla FC PD Burnley FC PL US Palermo SA Hull City PL Málaga CF PD FC Köln BL TSG 1899 Hoffenheim BL S.S. Lazio SA AFC Bournemouth PL FC Augsburg BL Sporting de Gijón PD Udinese Calcio SA Bologna FC SA AS Saint-Étienne L Lille OSC L Genoa C.F.C. SA U.C. Sampdoria SA Toulouse FC L Olympique Lyonnais L Middlesbrough FC PL SV Darmstadt 98 BL RCD Espanyol PD FC Girondins de Bordeaux L Real Sociedad PD Rank Club Lg. Total score 67. FC Metz L Villarreal CF PD Real Betis PD ACF Fiorentina SA Deportivo de La Coruña PD Angers SCO L SC Freiburg BL FC Nantes L Montpellier HSC L Granada CF PD Stade Malherbe Caen L SD Eibar PD Stade Rennais L Atalanta Bergamo SA Deportivo Alavés PD AS Nancy L Cagliari Calcio SA Dijon FCO L FC Lorient L Torino F.C. SA SC Bastia L UD Las Palmas PD Chievo Verona SA Athletic Bilbao PD OGC Nice L En Avant de Guingamp L CA Osasuna PD Sassuolo Calcio SA Empoli F.C. SA CD Leganés PD Delfino Pescara SA F.C. Crotone SA 5.38 BL=Bundesliga; PL=Premier League; L1=Ligue 1; PD=Primera División; SA=Serie A

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