The above diagram is a pyramid to show the current structure of the men’s English football at a national level. These are levels 1 to 9. The numbers next to the leagues is the amount of teams in each league.
The above diagram shows the current structure of the men’s English football league at my local level. The Sussex county football league. Levels 9 to 21.
The above diagram shows the current structure of the women’s football league at all levels. From levels 1 to 7.
As we can see from the above pyramid men’s football is larger than women’s football, although women’s football is the fastest growing sport in the UK and is a large sport in the US.
Funding and commercialisation
British football is rift with sponsorship. Most leagues and competitions have a sponsor’s name, often covering the real one. The official name is provided wherever possible with the sponsored version in brackets after it. Football is a largely funded sport and has made extreme amounts of money through commercialisation e.g. advertising, sponsorship and merchandising. Most money income for many clubs can come from ticket sales, merchandise sales and sponsorship deals.
The main body of English football the FA has many sponsors.
Nationwide, the world’s largest building society and previous sponsor of the England football team, has renewed its sponsorship with The Football Association. They joined the new F.A. Partners commercial programme in August 2002 as the exclusive sponsor of the women’s football pillar.
The multi-million pound deal, as the first ever-specific sponsors of national women’s football in England, is the biggest of its kind in Europe.
Nationwide has recently signed a new four-year deal with the FA worth up to 40million pounds.
Other sponsors such as the ones above have also signed deals worth millions of pounds.
Clubs receive sponsorship fees and the sponsor receives brand exposure so sponsorship is large in football. A brand like electronics goods company Sharp chose football because of the mass appeal of the sport in the UK.
In 1978 Liverpool became the first British club to have a shirt sponsor.
The cost of shirt sponsorship at some top clubs (up to £5 million a year in some cases) means that only large, private companies will now do. In 2002 Tottenham Hotspur announced a new four-year £15 million deal with kit manufacturer Kappa.
Arsenal Football Club has today signed the biggest club sponsorship agreement in English football history with Emirates Airline, in an agreement worth £100 million.
Some companies feel they benefit from very long term deals with top clubs most people now are encouraged to think, for example, that Vodafone somehow 'stands for' Manchester United these days. Arsenal for many years had only one shirt sponsor, JVC, before moving on to Sony. Today more and more high tech industries have moved into shirt sponsorship business with computer goods, mobile phones and office products to the fore.
For the English football leagues the main sponsors are…
- Barclaycard
- Budweiser
- Nike
- Lucozade
- Coca-cola
Plus many more.
In 1997–98 the total revenue of the Premier League was £569 million, of which £203 million (36%) was match-day receipts, £152 million (26%) was TV receipts, and £214 million (38%) was from merchandising and other commercial income.
In the 1997–98 season Premier League clubs spent over £190 million on players’ wages. They spent a further £171 million on transfers, of which 45% went on players from outside the UK.
British football is all about sponsorship, with players being sponsored by sports companies and many teams being sponsored also. For example David Beckham has a large sponsorship deal with Adidas, David Beckham receives millions of pounds to wear and promote Adidas products. For each match, he is given a brand new pair of Adidas Predator boots. This benefits both him and the company, due to children’s hero such as himself wearing adidas products sales rise largely.
Many people seem to believe that the true commercialisation of football has only recently begun. However, a century ago players were paid to play and club owners needed a way to raise money for their salaries, so began charging for entry to matches.
In 1923, the rules of the FA Cup were printed by the sports equipment and clothing suppliers Lillywhites, which bought the sole rights to publish them. And, from at least the 1930s onwards, it was common to see top football players (Dixie Dean, Stanley Matthews, etc.) advertising and sponsoring products, including cigarettes and men's cosmetics. It is clear, then, that the 'commercialisation' of football really first began long ago in England.
Many organisations are providing funding is mainly to influence and help children and young adults become more involved in football. As it is a rapidly growing sport all over the globe and is becoming more and more popular everyday not just with men but women as well. A good funder of football is the national lottery with its award for all programme, providing small clubs with grants to help with their facilities and helping them to improve with new technology and equipment.
