“It’s time to make the Money”

Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money

The beginning of the week is always the cold slap in the face of reality. We have to drag our tired, huddled body mass out of bed and make ourselves presentable to the world.

Because it’s time to make the money!

Deals are announced, best and not-so-best laid plans are laid, and the suits attempt to profit from the weekend matches.

Let’s look into the money involved with World Cup Qualifiers, the wonderful Serie A and Serie B deals, stadium rights, and the pretty boys of football – Beckham and Ronaldo.

First off, the England – Brazil match is all about the benjamins. Great sports theatre is also a good payday. The match was arranged to repay the £1.2 million debt the English FA incurred to have Brazil play in the inaugural friendly at Wembley. So England will travel to Doha in their summer to make good. Putting players on the pitch with hawking their own footwear will help the sponsors (Nike, Umbro, etc) profit from the event.

Over in Italy, business is never as transparent as it seems. First, the Murdoch-owned company Sky Italia was denied their ability to make money for the league. The sale was challenged by Conto TV, and an Italian court blocked the deal for now, This deal was for showing the matches in Italy only. The International rights to Serie A were awarded to MP & Silva, the same company that acquired International rights to Arsenal TV channel (also known as the UF pedobear channel). Meanwhile, the Serie B turned down the proposals to split TV rights revenues in Italian football were rejected by clubs in Serie B, the country’s second division. Show us the money! screams the 22 teams that make up the second division. They should be happy we want to watch Reggina vs. Torino.

The big Naming Rights of EPL Stadia: In the US, we have become accustomed to the names of stadia being given to those who give the largest amount of money to the team. Sometimes it can be embarrassing , like Citi Field (thanks Bernie!) or failed.com. The uniforms, however, are mostly free of sponsors (save for a small swoosh here or there).

In the UK, the positions have been reversed. Kits have been carrying sponsors for ages. However, the stadia have remained the place of reverence: Stadium of Light, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, etc., the names go on. A good article from the UK breaks down the feelings that arise in loyal fans over the naming rights. We want them to be named something special, but that may be different for folks.

Say you want to sack your manager. Can you afford it? The argument coming from Liverpool is that they can’t afford to kick Rafa to the curb right now, even though many fans will argue they can’t afford not to. Maybe they can take some of the money they may getting selling the naming rights for their new stadium.

Let’s not forget our pretty boys! Becks earned 10 million pounds in sponsorship deals. Showing even more power of the beard, sales of Ronaldo shirts have not come close to the sales numbers that Beckham moved in 2003. Of course, the economy is to blame, nothing about the Portuguese mid being a prancy pretty boy.