England gave us the Industrial Revolution. Our history books were full of it, mentioning how India's cotton industry slumped due to the rise of Britain's. The cotton industry came to dominate England's pioneering path to Industrialization and one city above all became the symbol of the entire process, The world's first Industrial city, Manchester. In a very real sense, Manchester helped actively to shape and mould the newly emerging global economy of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The economic dominance of the past century is still reflected in an extraordinary vibrant cultural lifestyle, its monumental Victorian-style architecture and of course, the city's pride and joy, and indeed the Premier League's, United and City.
How's this for a fact? Manchester United has almost 70 businesses from across the world linked to their ever-growing account books. You read that right. Seventy. Well, currently 69 to be exact, but there you go. Almost seventy. Wow! From Azerbaijan to New Zealand, from Malta to Zimbabwe, from Norway to Tanzania, the club has proved they're truly global. How're they making so much money? Matchday revenue, Broadcasting revenue both domestic and international aside, the real gold is mined in the commercial department-sponsorship and merchandise. Exploring a plethora of business partners worldwide, United is run by the former Investment banker Ed Woodward from his swanky office in London. And the business partners pay for the privilege to be associated with United.
Simply speaking, United has a lot of 'fans' worldwide, both hardcore and softcore. The hardcore set take United to their heart and sleep with the badge. It is they who shout the club's name from their rooftops, run exclusive fan clubs and forums and revel in their team's performance on good or bad days while the Softcore set strictly saying, just sleep off. It’s important to understand here that 'followers'-the Softcore ones are not 'fans'. So there is nothing to stop these so-called 'followers' following several clubs at once.
That's a trend we're seeing around the world, particularly in developing markets. In that case Real Madrid and Barcelona are everywhere. Though the Premier League now dominates the top-30 earning football clubs in Europe, with a staggering 17 clubs, Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid C.F topped the Deloitte Football Money League for the 11th consecutive year, Barcelona a close second, pushing United to third.
But, all that could change.
Manchester United are expected to overtake Real Madrid and Barcelona to become the world's highest-earning football club over the next 12 months, that too despite their failure to progress to this season's lucrative Champions League. United's coffers are expected to swell due to their 75 million pounds a year, 10-year-deal with kit manufacturer Adidas as well as a 53 million pound a year deal with Shirt sponsor Chevrolet. They aim to be the first football club in history to generate half-a-billion pounds a year in revenue.
United's sponsorship commitments saw them undertake their pre-season training in China. Yes China. Jose Mourinho has endured a chaotic, disruptive and disappointing first tour as United Manager. The tour will be remembered for the ill-fated events which started with a 4-1 thrashing by Dortmund after which Mourinho remarked "It was formula one against formula three". Heavy downpours placed the hyped up United-City match at the Bird's nest stadium, Beijing in doubt even before the squad arrived. Disrupted by bad weather, one group of players were forced into an emergency landing around 60 miles away. Forward Memphis Depay filmed himself on the tarmac with a caption:' Lost in China'. The team eventually had dinner at 1 am. United's Next match is a friendly against Galatasaray at Gothenburg, Sweden on July 30th.
