The German Bundesliga has been crowned king of Europe's major leagues in terms of shirt sponsorship spending, reports SportBusiness. It was a close run battle between the Premier League (EPL) and its German counterpart for No.1 spot.
The new report from International Marketing Reports details that overall primary shirt sponsorship deals are greater for the Premier League, but averaged out by club, the Bundesliga emerges on top.
For the 2011-12 season, total shirt sponsorship spend for the Premier League amounted to Eur128 million, whereas Bundesliga clubs achieved Eur121 million.
However, there are 20 clubs in the EPL giving an average deal value of Eur6.4 million, whereas in Germany there are 18 clubs, meaning the average deal is slightly higher at Eur6.72 million.
Commenting on the findings, report author Simon Rines said that there are other reasons for the Germans to be satisfied.
"There are, however, very few deals below Eur3 million in Germany and 12 are above Eur4 million. In England, the highest deals are for the two Manchester clubs, both on Eur22 million, with the lowest being Blackburn Rovers on zero (charity partner) and Norwich on Eur0.3 million (Aviva). Significantly, only nine Premiership clubs achieve more than Eur4 million and 11 achieve less than Eur3 million." "If you look at the deals in detail, there is much less polarity in German deals than in the UK," he said. "The highest price paid in Germany is Eur26.5 million for Bayern Munich's deal with Deutsche Telekom, with the lowest being FC Augsburg's Eur1 million agreement with car components manufacturer AL-KO.
The report details that Italy's Serie A averages Eur4 million per club, while the Dutch Eredivisie averages Eur2.1 million and France's Ligue 1 averages Eur1.5 million.
