Brazilian league: third largest sponsorship in world

For anyone who watches the Brazilian leagues, you know about the great deal of growth the league (and country) has gone through in the past few years.

For starters back in ‘03 we switched to a European round-robin league format. Before this we would constantly change league formats and have way too many teams participating. By adopting the European system (although still controversial in Brazil) the league gives itself more respect with foreign viewers.

For a while now clubs have begun improving facilities and have begun to better develop their youth divisions (MLS take notes).

Perhaps most shocking over the past few years has been the return of players like Ronaldo, Robinho, Adriano, Ronaldhino, Fred, Elano etc etc.

Yea yea you might say that the only reason these players came back was because there was no space for them in European. True but in my opinion this “Great Return” would never have happened say 5-10 years ago. The answer? Brazilian clubs have gotten better at marketing. With a superstar in their squad teams get loads of sponsorship money (not to mention more coverage nationally and internationally, as well as attracting more fans in the stadium). That’s why Santos, instead of selling Neymar last year for 30 million euros, decided to hang onto him a little longer. If reports are to be believed the kid is still making just as much as he would in Europe.

With this said its no surprise (at least to me) that the Brazilian league has been ranked number three (sorry it’s in Portuguese) when shirt sponsors are summed up. The study was done by German Sport+Markt. Of course Brazilian teams usually have two or three sponsors as apposed to the European standard of just one. Still the numbers are what they are and Brazil is getting closer and closer to the big boys.

Top 6 Leagues (in Euros):

1. England: 128
2. Germany: 118
3. Brazil: 105
4. Italy: 62
5. France: 59
6. Spain: 57

Top 6 Clubs:

1. Man U: 23.6
2. Liverpool: 23.6
3. R. Madrid: 23
4. Corinthians: 22
5. Bayern Munich: 22
6. Chelsea: 16.3

P.S. Barcelona will  make about 30 million euros a year starting next July with Qatar Foundation, which will make them number one on the list. It will also boost Spain to fourth on the league list.

Category: Clubs