Football has now become one of the most complex mechanisms in the world, a real global multinational company of sport in which every moving part must engage smoothly with the others in order to maintain balance. In the modern game, there are three particular moving parts – the Internet, Sponsors and TV rights – three factors which are essential to set in motion the international football system and which have an enormous value for its smooth operation.
For this reason, it is nowadays no longer possible to separate the football world from these three elements which underpin its success – of course together with the “supporters” factor, supporters who have always been essential in terms of boosting interest in a particular sector and without them football, as we know it today, would not even exist.
However, if we talk about finances, brand dissemination, club expansion and buying star names to bring even greater visibility, it is clear that – at a time when the monetary value of football has now reached heights that have never been scaled before – it is no longer only the fans who make the difference: today it is also essential to know how to use modern tools.
Above all, we have the Internet, the technology for the new millennium, which can take millions of news and pieces of information from one side of the cosmos to the other in just a few seconds. This type of technology, which is now used in every sector of the economy, is important for football clubs to ensure the development of commercial relations, to maintain contact with fans around the world and to spread brands at almost the speed of light.
Then we have the sponsors which, looking at the great rate of expansion of footballing brands worldwide, increase their expectations of growth and spread accordingly, and try to connect their own brands to the most popular clubs or competitions to enjoy, in their turn, the fruits of their success. Therefore, the more the club or competition is of value in terms of its dissemination, the more the sponsor will be tempted to invest in it.
The third and final element, but not the least, concerns TV rights, whose value is based on the success and growth prospects of the various clubs and championships of the world, which are broadcast on television: the more a championship, a competition or a club is successful, the more the value of the relevant TV rights will increase.
Thus, managing to make the best possible use of these three instruments has today become one of the most important means to grow in the football world. For this reason, we have tried to analyse their importance, observing their operation and impact on the value of European football through some recent examples.