Ranking of Internationalization of Europe s Top-5 Leagues 2016-2017
Ranking of internationalization of Europe s top-5 leagues 2016-2017 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 2014. 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 2016-2017 season. The categories partners-
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 711 2. Bundesliga 451 3. Primera División 437 4. Serie A 354 5. Ligue 1 308 2014, 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 75.3 2. Real Madrid 74.4 3. Manchester City 73.7 4. Chelsea FC 70.2 5. Manchester United 69.9 6. FC Bayern Munich 54.0 7. Paris Saint-Germain 51.4 8. Arsenal FC 50.8 9. Juventus 47.6 10. 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 2014. 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 94.1 2. Manchester United 90.3 3. Manchester City 87.9 4. FC Barcelona 87.5 5. Arsenal FC 85.2 6. Real Madrid 81.8 7. Tottenham Hotspur 72.7 8. Paris Saint-Germain 69.2 9. Valencia CF 66.7 10. Liverpool FC 62.5 exceed the mark of 90%, whereas
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 2014. 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 13 2. 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 6 10. 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 2014. 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 73.1 2. Manchester City 68.2 3. Atlético Madrid 65.2 4. Tottenham Hotspur 56.5 5. Real Madrid 56.0 6. Manchester United 55.6 SSC Napoli 55.6 8. Watford FC 55.2 9. FC Barcelona 54.5 10. 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
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 92,394,783 2. Real Madrid 90,231,059 3. Manchester United 69,371,471 4. Chelsea FC 45,779,978 5. FC Bayern Munich 37,478,580 6. Arsenal FC 35,898,642 7. Liverpool FC 27,602,419 8. Paris Saint-Germain 23,119,233 9. AC Milan 22,921,774 10. 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
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
Total ranking of the 98 clubs of Europe s top 5 leagues Rank Club Lg. Total score 1. FC Barcelona PD 75.32 2. Real Madrid PD 74.37 3. Manchester City PL 73.72 4. Chelsea FC PL 70.17 5. Manchester United PL 69.95 6. FC Bayern Munich BL 53.98 7. Paris Saint-Germain L1 51.35 8. Arsenal FC PL 50.84 9. Juventus F.C. SA 47.56 10. Liverpool FC PL 46.40 11. Tottenham Hotspur PL 42.81 12. AC Milan SA 37.66 13. Inter Milan SA 37.12 14. Atlético Madrid PD 35.43 15. Borussia Dortmund BL 33.78 16. Valencia CF PD 32.96 17. West Ham United PL 32.74 18. Everton FC PL 32.21 19. Crystal Palace PL 31.41 20. FC Schalke 04 BL 31.32 21. AS Roma SA 29.81 22. Leicester City PL 29.29 23. VfL Wolfsburg BL 28.73 24. Stoke City PL 28.08 25. Celta de Vigo PD 27.96 26. Borussia Mönchengladbach BL 27.89 27. Swansea City PL 27.68 28. Bayer 04 Leverkusen BL 27.52 29. West Bromwich Albion PL 27.46 30. Southampton FC PL 27.27 31. AS Monaco L1 27.27 32. Eintracht Frankfurt BL 26.93 33. RasenBallsport Leipzig BL 26.63 Rank Club Lg. Total score 34. Watford FC PL 26.62 35. SSC Napoli SA 23.97 36. SV Werder Bremen BL 23.44 37. 1. FSV Mainz 05 BL 23.10 38. Hamburger SV BL 23.00 39. Sunderland AFC PL 22.63 40. Olympique de Marseille L1 22.37 41. Hertha BSC BL 21.98 42. FC Ingolstadt 04 BL 21.29 43. Sevilla FC PD 20.72 44. Burnley FC PL 20.68 45. US Palermo SA 19.71 46. Hull City PL 19.37 47. Málaga CF PD 18.85 48. 1. FC Köln BL 18.62 49. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim BL 18.43 50. S.S. Lazio SA 17.64 51. AFC Bournemouth PL 16.77 52. FC Augsburg BL 16.65 53. Sporting de Gijón PD 16.63 54. Udinese Calcio SA 16.25 55. Bologna FC SA 16.18 56. AS Saint-Étienne L1 16.06 57. Lille OSC L1 15.73 58. Genoa C.F.C. SA 15.47 59. U.C. Sampdoria SA 14.91 60. Toulouse FC L1 14.86 61. Olympique Lyonnais L1 14.81 62. Middlesbrough FC PL 14.72 63. SV Darmstadt 98 BL 14.53 64. RCD Espanyol PD 14.49 65. FC Girondins de Bordeaux L1 14.34 66. Real Sociedad PD 13.94 Rank Club Lg. Total score 67. FC Metz L1 13.82 68. Villarreal CF PD 13.72 69. Real Betis PD 13.65 70. ACF Fiorentina SA 13.40 71. Deportivo de La Coruña PD 13.25 72. Angers SCO L1 12.85 73. SC Freiburg BL 12.69 74. FC Nantes L1 12.51 75. Montpellier HSC L1 12.38 76. Granada CF PD 11.90 77. Stade Malherbe Caen L1 11.86 78. SD Eibar PD 11.83 79. Stade Rennais L1 10.99 80. Atalanta Bergamo SA 10.92 81. Deportivo Alavés PD 10.64 82. AS Nancy L1 10.32 83. Cagliari Calcio SA 10.28 84. Dijon FCO L1 9.99 85. FC Lorient L1 9.96 86. Torino F.C. SA 9.66 87. SC Bastia L1 9.53 88. UD Las Palmas PD 9.53 89. Chievo Verona SA 9.49 90. Athletic Bilbao PD 8.78 91. OGC Nice L1 8.58 92. En Avant de Guingamp L1 8.06 93. CA Osasuna PD 7.83 94. Sassuolo Calcio SA 6.69 95. Empoli F.C. SA 6.56 96. CD Leganés PD 5.38 96. Delfino Pescara SA 5.38 98. F.C. Crotone SA 5.38 BL=Bundesliga; PL=Premier League; L1=Ligue 1; PD=Primera División; SA=Serie A