EPL Conquers Europe Again

Despite its foundering fortunes on the pitch in Europe, the EPL is still a great brand

The English Premier League has once again conquered Europe. Never mind that none of its sides, on the field of play, progressed into the quarterfinals of this year’s Champions League which was won by Barcelona in Berlin Last week. Despite such failings in Europe, the EPLstill progressed in the field of branding, as Manchester United edged out Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to become the world’s most popular football brand. The Red devil, despite missing a season of Champions League football, somehow managed to fire up its brand value from $739 million in 2014 to $1.2 billion in 2015. In the 2015 rankings of the World’s most valuable football brands released by Brand finance, six English club sides made the top ten. Along with United that topped the list, Manchester City was fourth, Chelsea fifth, while Arsenal , Liverpool and Tottenham were seventh, eight and tenth respectively. Take that La Liga! Though Barca with its constellation of stars might have bested Man City on its way to conquering Europe, the English club’s brand still has more sparkle than the Blaugrana’s. City’s brand value, haven risen astronomically since taken over by Sugar daddies from the Middle East, was put at $800 million compared to Barcelona’s $773 million, placing the Catalonian club sixth on the table. Translation: Whatever magic Lionel Messi could pull on the pitch for Barca that bred fan loyalty, the citizens PR machine could better leading to more merchandise. While the EPL seems to have a bee in its bonnet about branding, other European leagues might want to borrow a leaf from the English book as more English sides made the top ten this year as against lasts. Though five English teams made it last year, Tottenham was able to edge past Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 into the top ten even without Champions league football this year. This brand power could be viewed as the icing on the cake for the Premier League which recently secured a record breaking $7.96 billion domestic TV deal to run from 2016 to 2019, a 70 per cent increase on the previous one.The Premier League is indeed worth its weight in gold as no other league in Europe came near such a jackpot. In the same vein, Manchester United also inked the biggest sport licensing contract in football, when it penned a $1.28 billion 10 year sponsorship deal with Adidas, last year. While the English sides are floundering on European pitches, they certainly still pack a punch as great salesmen of their product.