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Summary of our market study
French Ligue 1 soccer club budgets exceed €4.6 billion
Around 3% of the French population, between 1 and 2 million people, belong to a soccer club.
The growth of women's soccer is a strong trend, with female members having increased by over 100% in ten years.
The player transfer process has proved crucial, with the influence of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) dominating the scene.
Sponsorship and advertising are essential pillars of the market structure. PSG's dominance of the market continued in terms of sales, valued at 1.838 billion euros, and sponsorship revenues, which amounted to 154.2 million euros.
Television rights, another crucial source of revenue, reached all-time highs, with a value of over one billion euros, although this figure slowed down during the pandemic.
Sales of merchandising continue to rise, thanks to the success of the national team and the colossal fan bases of the various clubs, with PSG leading the way and making a significant contribution to merchandising sales, with over 50 million euros.
Ticket sales for Ligue 1 competitions are an essential segment of the market, with PSG and Olympique Lyonnais accounting for almost half of these revenues.
Profiles of the main players in the French soccer market
- Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is a colossus in the world of French soccer, thanks to substantial investment by Qatar Sport Investments, which has transformed the club into a global powerhouse.
- Olympique Lyonnais (OL), often referred to as OL, is another traditional titan of French soccer, regularly topping Ligue 1.
- Olympique de Marseille (OM), appreciated for the passion of its fans and its historic past, is another major player in French soccer. The acquisition of the club by American businessman Frank McCourt marked the start of a new era aimed at restoring OM to its former glory and creating a competitive, sustainable entity.
- AS Monaco, despite a smaller fan base, takes advantage of its unique position in the French championship to make dynamic financial deals. Owned by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.
- Decathlon - Although not a soccer club, Decathlon deserves a mention as a key distributor in the soccer market.
- Nike is at the pinnacle of soccer equipment brands, having signed lucrative sponsorship and merchandise deals with top clubs such as PSG.
- Adidas, another major competitor in the soccer apparel sector, equips several major clubs and offers a wide range of soccer products.
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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Definition and presentation
The soccer club market mainly covers the players of the Professional Football League (LFP), which brings together the French and Monegasque clubs with professional status, i.e., the 20 clubs of League 1, and the 20 clubs of League 2.
The economic sector "professional soccer" generates several billion euros in France each year with double-digit annual growth since 2016, after experiencing many years of deficit. But PSG carries two-thirds of the growth of its peers. In 2016, nearly 3% of the French population is part of a soccer club and France is one of the leading soccer countries in Europe, with more than 15,000 soccer clubs, and more than 2 million licensees including 5% women (a number that is constantly increasing).
Transfers, during the summer and winter periods, contribute to the growth of soccer in France with increasingly large amounts of money, whether it be at the national or international level.(Neymar, bought for 220 million euros by PSG) or for sale (Pepe, sold for over 80 million euros by Lille in 2019). For example, in 2016, transfers during the summer period amounted to more than 4.2 billion euros, driven by the British Premier League's spending of 1.4 billion euros. The French Ligue 1 generated a profit of 425 million euros in transfers. Also, sponsoring and TV rights, which are increasingly important, contribute to the growth of the market in France.
The market for soccer clubs is dominated by PSG, Olympique Lyonnais and Monaco, as well as a handful of other clubs, which leaves little room for the remaining players. The staggering growth of PSG and OL may hide the financial difficulties of the other clubs, making it rather difficult to estimate the growth of the other players in the market in the coming years.
The soccer club market is facing increasing regulatory constraints (proposed tax on high incomes), as well as the financialization of the soccer economy, marked by the arrival of foreign investment funds.
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the soccer club market | France
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