Soccer, Business, and Marketing
U.S. president Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929) once remarked that “the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”[1] Coolidge could have easily been speaking about the business of professional soccer. This chapter is about the relationships between soccer, business, and marketing.
Any cursory examination of sports makes it obvious that soccer is used as a marketing tool to sell the world’s most popular game, professional clubs, players, corporations, and advertisers. Major clubs such as Barcelona or Manchester United even sell their soccer matches as unique experiences. When you enter Old Trafford, Manchester United’s fabled stadium opened in 1910, you are entering the “Theatre of Dreams”—a name coined by United and English international legend Bobby Charlton.
Moreover, the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 to 1985, was a veritable marketing invention, a creation of the marketing “spin merchants,” to borrow Ingham’s phrase from chapter 3. Markovits and Rensmann argue that the NASL’s New York Cosmos, with legends such as Pelé and Beckenbauer at its core, “represented the first truly globalized sports club of the modern age.”[2] How could it be that Toronto-based NASL teams could draw merely 5,000 to 15,000 fans on average and yet pay such talented and high-priced stars such as David Byrne (South Africa), Jomo Sono (South Africa), Clyde Best (Bermuda), Željko Bilecki (Yugoslavia), David Fairclough (England), Roberto Bettega (Italy), Jimmy Nicholl (Northern Ireland), Eusébio (Portugal), Jimmy Bone (Scotland), Jan Moller (Sweden), and Arno Steffenhagen (West Germany)? These were merely the Toronto players and there were other more famous stars throughout the NASL such as Carlos Alberto, Vladislav Bogicevic, Johan Cruyff, Johan Neskeens, George Best, and Roberto Cabañas. The NASL was so marketing conscious that it instituted a soccer rarity, a shootout in case of a draw, in order to make the game more exciting for a North American audience. Borrowing from baseball and American football, teams even had mascots in order to make the club brand more identifiable to fans.
The NASL lasted less than twenty years. One of the main problems with the league was the lack of local talent and excessive reliance on foreign talent, often beyond its prime. Another major problem with the NASL was overexpansion. New franchises were added quickly without consolidating the existing franchises. So, for example, in 1968 the NASL began with seventeen teams and by 1969 it had merely five teams. New growth occurred in the 1975 and 1976 seasons with a total of twenty teams and a high of twenty-four teams for the 1978–1980 seasons. In the NASL’s final season in 1984, only nine teams remained. Another factor in the demise of the NASL was when FIFA awarded Mexico rather than the United States the 1986 World Cup after Colombia withdrew.
It would take another ten years from the NASL’s last season until a new professional soccer league, Major League Soccer (MLS), was created in the United States. The 1994 World Cup in the United States, which saw the highest attendance of any World Cup in history, added to the allure and marketing appeal of the MLS. The MLS learned three marketing lessons from the failed NASL: 1) rely on mostly local talent; 2) create franchise stability; and 3) accept expansion teams based on the league’s financial stability.
Soccer marketing had its growth period in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of soccer superstars such as Pelé and George Best. These soccer stars sold the game worldwide, as well as various products, services, and advertisers. The Manchester United legend George Best was the epitome of cool, an image promoted by marketing gurus who focused on his sexy image and fast lifestyle (pretty women, parties, and fast cars) as much as his exceptional soccer talents. With the New York Cosmos, Pelé became a global media celebrity—a worldwide icon—perhaps one of the most recognizable public faces of all time. It is no wonder that Brazilian politicians still invoke his name and companies such as the Spanish bank Santander still use the image of Pelé to promote their bottom line.
By the 1990s, soccer had become a marketing tool of extraordinary proportions. Players such as England’s David Beckham and Brazil’s Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (winner of the 1994 and 2002 World Cups and three-time FIFA Player of the Year award) were transformed into global marketing icons. Manchester United has bought talented Korean, Japanese, Ecuadorian, Mexican, Brazilian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Serbian players in order to sell Manchester United to soccer fans around the globe. There are more players, clubs, coaches, administrators, corporations, and governments that understand the marketing thrust and appeal of soccer. In the age of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, even tiny and obscure soccer clubs and players recognize the importance of social media and marketing. While not all soccer players can be turned into the “Beckham brand,” more soccer players are emulating his marketing chic both on and off the pitch.
Before highlighting the business and marketing lessons of soccer, we need to select our number 7, an outside right, right winger, or right midfielder.
Whereas with every number it was a real challenge to choose a player or players, it was not a difficult choice to select David Beckham as one of the number 7 choices. While I was writing The World through Soccer, Beckham retired in May 2013 after he won yet another trophy: the French first division league championship with Paris Saint-Germain FC. Beckham wore jersey number 23 with the Los Angeles Galaxy, but most of his career he wore the number 7 shirt. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese international currently playing with Real Madrid CF, is also a number 7 with great marketing appeal and has even more breathtaking individual skills than his English counterpart. He has also been selected as a representative of this chapter.
Yet there is nobody like David Beckham that can best highlight the links between soccer as a business and its marketing appeal. All of David Beckham’s decisions—from joining Manchester United and later Real Madrid, AC Milan, the Los Angeles Galaxy, and Paris Saint-Germain—were made with the desire to push the ubiquitous “David Beckham brand.” Beckham is perhaps the greatest marketing icon that soccer has ever seen. Even Beckham’s decisions off the pitch such as his numerous tattoos or his marriage to a “Spice Girl” are cultivated to enhance his marketing appeal. When Beckham sells, he sells Beckham, his club, the English national team, shirts, match tickets, paraphernalia, sponsors, advertisers, products, and also the game itself. Beckham’s marketing pull is so profound that Markovits and Rensmann invented the term “Beckham effect,” which connotes “the arrival of a foreign, bona fide, crossover, global superstar to help a struggling sport in a country where it has languished at the cultural margins.”[3] Once-obscure soccer leagues such as in the United States, Qatar, China, or India have seen the arrival of foreign superstars help the sport achieve more mainstream cultural appeal. Beckham was responsible for almost single-handedly changing the image and quality of the MLS, increasing fan attendance, bringing major sponsors, and pushing other European, South American, African, and Asian stars to play in North America.
David Beckham, or “Becks” as he is affectionately known, was not only an exceptional right-sided midfielder, but he neatly embodies lesson seven’s insights about soccer as a global business and its marketing appeal. David Robert Joseph Beckham is only thirty-eight and has already received the distinction of the Order of the British Empire. He was born in Leytonstone, England on May 2, 1975. In 2013 he retired, playing his last professional match with French club Paris Saint-Germain.
Beckham first made his name and his marketing appeal with Manchester United from 1993 to 2003. He also had a short spell at Preston North End in England (1994–1995) and a few loan spells at AC Milan (2009–2010), as well as spending a good portion of his career at Real Madrid (2003–2007). From 1996 until 2009, Beckham scored seventeen goals and made 115 appearances for England’s national team, a record for outfield players only surpassed by the legendary goalkeeper Peter Shilton. Beckham was England’s captain from 2000 until the 2006 World Cup tournament. He also played in three World Cups for his country in 1998, 2002, and 2006. When he scored a sublime free kick goal against Ecuador in the second round of the 2006 World Cup to win the match 1–0, he became the only English player to score in three World Cup tournaments. He was only the fifth player in World Cup history to score twice from a direct free kick, sharing the honor with free kick masters Pelé, Roberto Rivelino (Brazil), Teófilo Cubillas (Peru), and Bernard Genghini (France). Beckham scored his other free kick goal against Colombia in the first round of the 1998 World Cup.
Beckham began his professional, first-team career at the tender age of seventeen with Manchester United. With the Manchester-based club, he won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League once. While Beckham became a marketing icon both at United and Real Madrid, he did not win a lot of silverware at the Madrid club. He only won La Liga championship in his final season with the club in 2007.
On July 1, 2007, David Beckham signed a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy. His two loan spells in Italy with Milan in 2009 and 2010 angered many Los Angeles Galaxy fans, some of who called him a “fake” and “traitor.” Despite the angry accusations, in 2011 and 2012 Beckham helped the Los Angeles Galaxy win its third and fourth MLS Cup trophies. He thus became one of those rare players who won league titles with three different professional clubs in three countries. At the end of the 2012 season, Beckham declared his mission of making soccer more popular in the United States accomplished and said that he was leaving the Los Angeles Galaxy for a final soccer adventure. He spent the 2013 season making ten appearances for Paris Saint-Germain, which won the French first division championship for the first time since 1994. As a result of Beckham’s time in the MLS, Los Angeles Galaxy and MLS league attendance figures rose, more clubs joined the MLS, the league was on solid financial footing, and the league won new fans, sponsors, and advertisers. Yet some critics like Ben Rycroft argue that while Beckham attracted new media attention for soccer in the United States, the MLS has “driven its own growth.”[4]
In honor of his soccer exploits, Beckham was twice runner-up for World Player of the Year. Noted for his exceptional and precise crossing of the ball, Beckham is third in the English Premier League’s all-time assist chart, with 152 assists in 265 appearances.[5] He scored sixty-two goals for Manchester United, including a gem from past the halfway line, another thirteen for Real Madrid, and eighteen for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Beckham was England’s first captain to collect two red cards and be sent off in a World Cup match. At the 1998 World Cup, after Argentina’s Diego Simeone fouled him, Beckham foolishly kicked the Argentine midfielder and was given a red card. Despite his troubles with the Spanish giants Real Madrid (including an excessive forty-one yellow cards), he was noted for his extreme professionalism, even when he sat on the bench. He missed out on the 2010 World Cup with a torn Achilles tendon.
His manager at Manchester United, the fiery Scotsman Alex Ferguson, complained that Beckham lost his way after he got into a relationship and later married “Spice Girl” Victoria Beckham in 2007: “He was never a problem until he got married. He used to go into work with the academy coaches at night time, he was a fantastic young lad. Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing—from that moment, his life was never going to be the same. He is such a big celebrity, football is only a small part.”[6] Yet while Ferguson complained, Beckham and the Manchester club kept winning titles. Ferguson guided the club to thirteen Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, and two Champions League trophies. Although Ferguson had to admit that Beckham’s off-field celebrity status was a distraction, he could say that the English star “practiced with a discipline to achieve an accuracy that other players wouldn’t care about.”[7] How else could we explain his indefatigable work rate, extraordinary assist total, sensational set pieces, incredible passing skills, and sublime free kick goals?
In 2013, Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography was released shortly after the manager’s retirement.[8] In the autobiography, he devotes one chapter to Beckham. He points out that marriage changed Beckham. In addition, the day after their heated exchange in which Beckham swore at Ferguson and the manager threw a shoe at the star, Ferguson “told the board David had to go.” Alex Ferguson’s autobiography is one of the most popular imported English books in China’s online shopping network. Moreover, before the release of Ferguson’s biography, Beckham considered asking Ferguson to be the coach of the Miami Fusion, a team that folded in 2001, and now Beckham is seeking to buy the team for a new MLS expansion team.[9] Yet aware of his image and marketing goals, Beckham refused to be negative about Ferguson: “I’m not going to sit here and be negative about a man who gave me the chance to play for my boyhood team,” while promoting his own book David Beckham in a global book signing televised on Facebook.[10]
What is extraordinary about Beckham is that while he sold numerous brands, including his various clubs, he also became the biggest brand in soccer history. Pelé, George Best, and Cristiano Ronaldo also branded themselves and were more complete players, but Beckham was the brand that beat them all.
Beckham used his marketing appeal in a way that could compare to no other soccer player in the history of the game. He was young, sexy, super fit, edgy (tattooed), a superb soccer star with the world’s major clubs, a legendary English international, a family man with four children, and with a value-added wife who was a worldwide pop star herself. David Beckham’s website cultivates his cool, sexy, alluring, and tattooed image.[11] In 2007, David Beckham joined the Los Angeles Galaxy in order to fully market the “Beckham brand” and sell soccer in North America. Beckham was humble and realistic about his new soccer adventure in the United States and won more admirers by stressing his love of soccer above profits:
I’m coming there not to be a superstar. I’m coming there to be part of the team, to work hard and to hopefully win things. With me, it’s about football. I’m coming there to make a difference. I’m coming there to play football. . . . I’m not saying me coming over to the States is going to make soccer the biggest sport in America. That would be difficult to achieve. Baseball, basketball, American football, they’ve been around. But I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I could make a difference.[12]
Beckham was awarded generously by the Los Angeles Galaxy, becoming the highest-paid player in league history. If we combine Beckham’s earnings with those of Victoria Beckham, his wife, the couple’s joint wealth in 2009 was estimated at £125 million (US$201 million).[13] Yet, his yearly salary with the Galaxy was estimated to be US$6.5 million and his net worth in 2011 was an absurd US$219 million.[14] The lowest Galaxy salary for a player was a mere US$11,000, what Beckham might earn in a day.[15] In 2012, at the age of thirty-seven and beyond his prime, he was pursued by French club Paris Saint-Germain. He signed with the French club and helped them win the French first division title in 2013.
Born Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro on February 5, 1985, in Funchal (the capital city of the island of Madeira), Portugal, Ronaldo is a contemporary Portuguese international who is one of the most talented players in the game today. He began his youth career with Andorinha and later Nacional, both Funchal-based teams, in the early 1990s. He is a sensational dribbler, a free kick master, and a player that terrorizes defenses with his dashing runs. Ronaldo is also a near equal to Beckham in branding himself and selling soccer: clubs, jerseys, tickets, products, advertisement, and the game.[16]
Ronaldo’s professional career began modestly with Lisbon-based Sporting CP, where he scored three goals in twenty-five games in the 2002–2003 season. At Manchester United from 2003 to 2009, Ronaldo was transformed into a superstar on the field and marketing icon off the pitch. For Manchester United, he scored eighty-four goals in 196 matches. His boss Alex Ferguson dubbed him the best player in the world. He won three league titles, one FA Cup, a Champions League trophy, and a World Club championship with the Manchester club.
Since joining Real Madrid in 2009, Ronaldo has been a scoring sensation. He holds records for most goals scored in a season for Real Madrid, for being the first top European league player to reach forty goals in a single season in two consecutive years, for the fastest Real Madrid player to reach 100 league goals, and the first player ever to score against every team in a single season in the Spanish first division (La Liga).[17] As of September 2013, Ronaldo had scored 148 goals in 139 matches for Real Madrid. This outlandish strike rate is better than any player in the game. With Real Madrid, he has won one La Liga title, a Spanish Cup, and a Spanish Super Cup title.
With Manchester United he won eight trophies, and with Real Madrid another three. Ronaldo is the only player to have won the European Golden Shoe in two different leagues (English Premier League and Spanish La Liga). With his current club, Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored the most goals in a single season in all competitions (sixty), the most in one La Liga season (forty-six), and has already surpassed 300 club goals. Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player among Real Madrid’s top league goal scorers who averages more than a goal per match (1.09). Playing for Real Madrid, he also has the record for most Champions League goals in a single season (twelve) and most hat tricks in a season (seven).
Ronaldo won the European Golden Shoe for highest goalscorer in 2008 and 2011. In 2008, he won the World Soccer Player of the Year award. He also led Portugal to a fourth place finish in the 2006 World Cup, and runner-up and bronze finishes at the European Championship in 2004 and 2012, respectively. He has scored thirty-nine goals for Portugal and made over 100 appearances for his country since his debut in 2003.
It is interesting to note that Ronaldo makes countless others goals for country and club through his guile, tremendous pace, and delicate passing abilities. The Manchester United and later Real Madrid star was honored for his skills. He won the prestigious Ballon d’Or in 2008 and 2013 and finished second in voting for the same award in 2007, 2009, and 2011.
Like Beckham, Ronaldo is rich. Through soccer and promotional modeling, Ronaldo had a net worth of US$150 million in 2012.[18] In 2012, Ronaldo had the second-highest soccer salary in any league with US$20 million annually, including bonuses (behind Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto’o who played for the Russian team Anzhi Makhachkala).[19] In 2009, Ronaldo became the most expensive soccer player in history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid, in a transfer worth US$131.6 million.[20] Like the retired English star, Ronaldo is a marketing dream. He is the second soccer player when it comes to endorsement earnings, trailing only David Beckham.[21] In 2013, Ronaldo officially launched his new underwear range, CR7, in spectacular fashion: a nineteen-meter-tall campaign image featuring the winger modeling his new underwear suspended above Madrid’s Palacio de Cibeles in the building’s renaissance courtyard.[22] After seeing the launch of Ronaldo’s new underwear line, one writer suggested that Ronaldo is the new Beckham:
He filled the vacant spot left by Madrid bound David Beckham when he signed for Manchester United in 2003—but it would seem the similarities between the two footballers don’t stop there.
Indeed, the Portuguese winger has enjoyed a career comparable to the former England skipper, having followed him to the Bernabeu—albeit two-years after Beckham swapped Spain for Southern California and Los Angeles Galaxy.
Like Becks, the moisturized midfielder has also developed separate interests away from the pitch—and he was on hand to launch his latest at Madrid’s Palacio de Cibeles on Thursday.[23]
In the following section, I examine the phenomena of “marketing nationalism,” the World Cup as a marketing dream, brand soccer stars such as David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, and other number 7s with marketing appeal. From these examples, I argue that soccer is more than a game. Professional soccer today provides unprecedented business and marketing opportunities for FIFA, national teams, major clubs, corporations, advertisers, analysts, writers, journalists, and soccer players.
FIFA, the world’s governing soccer body, was created in 1904. What distinguishes FIFA’s structure from the United Nations is that it recognizes federations or nations rather than sovereign states. Based in Zurich, Switzerland, today FIFA has 209 national associations under its ambit. In short, FIFA has more members than the United Nations, which currently has 191 member states. As former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan argued, world soccer led by FIFA is “the only truly global game, played in every country by every race and religion, it is one of the few phenomena as universal as the United Nations.”[24]
As a result of FIFA’s democratizing criteria for entrance into the organization, Northern Mariana Islands, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Guam, Macau, and Palestine are all members of the Asian Soccer Confederation under FIFA’s control. Yet none of these aforementioned “nations” are sovereign states recognized by the international community. Similarly, although they are not sovereign states, Réunion and Zanzibar are members of FIFA’s African Soccer Confederation. Guadeloupe, Martinique, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Puerto Rico are not sovereign states, yet all are members of FIFA’s CONCACAF federation representing North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. New Caledonia, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands are part of FIFA’s Oceania Soccer Confederation, although they are not independent states. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Gibraltar, and Faroe Islands are all members of the UEFA federation, although the Faroe Islands belong to Denmark and the five remaining are part of Great Britain.
Moreover, recall that in chapter 5 I examined soccer as a secular religion. There is a Vatican City national soccer team (Selezione di calcio della Città del Vaticano) that represents Vatican City. In this case, a secular faith intersects with an established religion and theocratic state. Yet the Vatican is one of only eight fully recognized sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are Monaco and Pacific micro-states Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands, and Palau.
Why are there more FIFA members than sovereign states? I argue that FIFA’s democratizing criteria for membership is a practical business and marketing strategy designed to expand the growth of the global game and enhance the profits of the Swiss-based organization. FIFA controls six regional soccer confederations (Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and two in the Americas) that it allows a degree of autonomy in day-to-day operations. Yet it is clear that FIFA’s structure means that all six regional federations must respond to the dictates of FIFA’s head office and its president Sepp Blatter.
FIFA’s aforementioned regional structure allows the organization “to operate like a transnational business.”[25] Each of the 209 FIFA members must pay the organization an annual fee. In addition, each international match that is played by any of the 209 members (including friendlies, tournaments, World Cup qualifying games, World Cup matches, Olympic Games matches, etc.) means that the participating “nations” or members must pay FIFA. In order for us to appreciate the business and marketing savvy of FIFA, here is a startling statistic. If FIFA was a sovereign state in 2006, it would have been the nineteenth biggest economy in the world with a gross domestic product of more than US$500,000 billion.[26] This extraordinary economic output would allow FIFA to join the G-20, the organization consisting of the world’s twenty most powerful countries. Switzerland, the home of FIFA and a country with no shabby economy, has GDP roughly equal to that of FIFA.
Dejan Stanković, an Inter Milan midfielder from 2004 until 2013 and a Red Star Belgrade hero in the 1990s, is a good example of FIFA’s strategy of “marketing nationalism.” The Belgrade-born midfielder played in the 1998 World Cup for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, while numerous republics from Slovenia and Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina had already become independent nations. At the 2006 World Cup, Stanković played for Serbia and Montenegro. Montenegro is now an independent country since its referendum in 2006. Finally, at the 2010 World Cup Stanković played for Serbia and one year later retired from international soccer. Stanković thus became the first ever soccer player to represent three national teams in three different World Cups. The point is that in recognizing nations, irrespective of the unique political circumstances of a country or region, FIFA is using nationalism as a tool for building national brands and selling soccer.
FIFA’s official slogan is “For the Game, For the World.” This slogan might be true, but it masks FIFA’s business and marketing bottom lines. The 209 federations are there to generate an important source of revenue for FIFA each year and give the world the positive impression that soccer is more democratic than the realm of international politics and nation-states. English, French, German, and Spanish are FIFA’s official languages, thus cementing FIFA’s global appeal in many nations. In addition, FIFA owns various companies that generate revenues through marketing, sponsors, and the sales of products. These companies include the following: FIFA Marketing and TV SA based in Switzerland, which exploits soccer marketing opportunities worldwide; FIFA Marketing Germany GmbH; Hitzigweg SA (Switzerland) for real estate services; FIFA Travel GmbH Zurich for travel agency services; FIFA Ireland Ltd. for an array of services; FIFA Media SA Zurich; and Footfin SA (Soccer Finance) (Switzerland).[27]
FIFA’s business model, which is based on more federations than sovereign states and global marketing campaigns through a network of allied companies, allows it to engage in what one writer calls “opportunistic nationalism.”[28] In chapter 1, I demonstrated how soccer is a site of contestation with respect to differing discourses of national identity. Soccer stars such as Chilavert, Buffon, or Zidane gave of themselves for the national cause through international soccer matches, although some of their compatriots in civil society question their politics or origins and thus their “fitness” to represent the national team. Within the civil societies of different national teams, there are different views of who should play for the national team and what soccer means to the nation. The multi-ethnic nature of the U.S. national soccer team is not the rule in all countries around the world. Given FIFA’s political and economic control of global soccer, some fans see FIFA’s legitimization of 209 soccer federations and the sponsoring of World Cup contests as part of an “opportunistic nationalism.” For these fans and critics, FIFA cares little about Palestine, Gibraltar, or Guadeloupe, but is interested in the marketing potential and revenue base associated with structuring soccer along nationalistic lines. In short, Scotland versus England, Serbia versus Croatia, Iran versus the United States, or perhaps one day Israel versus Palestine, sells for FIFA.
Moreover, with the rise of a global soccer market, commercial necessities, greater migration flows, and the influence of major global club sides, foreigners are quickly supplanting local talent and cost far more than locals. This is particularly true with the major European clubs after the Bosman ruling (named after Belgian player Jean-Marc Bosman) by the European court of Justice in 1995, which gave all European Union (EU) citizens the ability to work and play within any nation in the EU without being considered a foreigner. Major club sides in Europe such as Chelsea, Manchester United, or AC Milan often have more foreign players than local, national talent. Even once-obscure leagues like Cyprus are now flooded with EU nationals from outside Cyprus who do not count as foreigners, as well as foreigners from outside of the EU.
The upshot is that FIFA controls all world soccer contests at the club, national, and international levels. On the one hand, FIFA exploits this “opportunistic nationalism” through the presence of 209 “nations” or federations, which generates nationalist sentiments and adds historical drama to some of the matches. Yet FIFA understands the marketing and revenue potentials of global soccer in which players are sold to clubs at alarming rates, irrespective of their nationality and largely in the interest of profits for the clubs, players, and ultimately FIFA.
The World Cup is also a marketing dream for FIFA and a variety of corporations and organizations. The first soccer World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. The World Cup began with merely thirteen nations. In the World Cups between 1934 and 1978, sixteen teams competed in each tournament. There were no World Cups during World War II, and there were two exceptions to the sixteen-team rule inaugurated in 1934. In 1938, Germany had completed its Anschluss with Austria as a result of Nazi expansionist aggression, and after qualifying matches, Austria was absorbed into Germany, thus leaving the 1938 World Cup tournament with fifteen teams. In the 1950 edition of the tournament in Brazil, the first one after World War II, India, Scotland, and Turkey withdrew, thus leaving the tournament with thirteen teams.[29] At the World Cup in Spain in 1982, the tournament expanded to twenty-four nations. By the 1998 World Cup in France, the tournament had expanded to thirty-two teams. This move to thirty-two teams was designed to expand the number of African, Asian, and North and Central American nations, as well as to increase the business growth of soccer beyond its traditional frontiers in Europe and South America. As a result, billions of fans around the world, even if they are not major soccer fans, watch the World Cup tournaments at least every four years. This even applies to countries such as the United States where soccer still languishes in relative “cultural marginality,” although this is changing with the rise of global soccer clubs and fans, the “Beckham effect,” the growing influence of the Latino communities, the rise of a professional soccer league (MLS), and the success of the national women’s team and its global superstars such as Mia Hamm and Christie Rampone.[30]
It is rather interesting that all the winners in the history of the World Cup have come from Europe or South America: Brazil (5), Italy (4), Germany (3), Argentina (2), Uruguay (2), England (1), France (1), and Spain (1). Countries outside of Europe or South America have rarely been able to progress to the quarterfinals of World Cup tournaments. Since the tournament expanded to thirty-two teams, countries outside of Europe and South America have attained more success. Mexico reached the quarterfinals on home soil in 1986; Cameroon gained a quarterfinal berth in 1990; Korea Republic finished fourth in 2002; both the USA and Senegal reached the quarterfinals in 2002; and Ghana was a quarterfinalist in 2010. In 1930, before the 1998 World Cup and the expansion to thirty-two teams, the United States finished the tournament in third place. At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Turkey and South Korea finished third and fourth, respectively.
Teams from former Communist Eastern and Central Europe have fared much better in World Cup contests. Czechoslovakia (1934 and 1962) and Hungary (1938 and 1954) finished as runners-up twice each, Poland (1974 and 1982) garnered third place twice, Croatia placed third in 1998, and the Soviet Union (1966), Yugoslavia (1930 and 1962), and Bulgaria (1994) each finished in fourth place.
If we think of nations that have won the World Cup or finished in the top four, we realize that soccer still has a lot of growth potential in countries such as China, India, and South Africa. Few nations outside of Europe, South America, or North America (Mexico twice and the United States once) hosted the World Cup. In 2010, the first World Cup was hosted in Africa by South Africa. Only five World Cups have been hosted outside of Europe or South America: South Africa (2010), South Korea and Japan (co-hosts) in 2002, the United States (1994), and Mexico (1986 and 1970). Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup. This will mean that Asia will only host its second World Cup in 2022. Thus, officials with FIFA see great business growth and marketing potential in Africa, Asia, and even North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
World Cup attendance figures averaged about 24,000 fans per game at the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay and reached a high of more than 68,000 fans per match at the 1994 World Cup in the United States. About 50,000 fans per match attended the last two World Cups in Germany and South Africa. The last three World Cups before South Africa and Germany with more than 50,000 fans were in England in 1966 (51,000), Mexico in 1970 (50,000), and the United States in 1994 (68,000). The lowest average attendance was when Italy won the World Cup in 1934 with about 21,000 fans per match. These figures also suggest that attendance growth is possible at World Cups in Brazil (2014), Russia (2018), and Qatar (2022). The choice of tiny Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup surely raised eyebrows around the globe but has a lot to do with allowing FIFA to expand its market share in Asia.
The World Cup is today the world’s most widely viewed sporting event on television, with an estimated 715.1 million people in 214 territories and countries watching the final match of the 2006 World Cup in Germany between France and Italy.[31] Despite the hosting of the 2002 World Cup in Asia with its major time differences, an accumulated audience of a whopping 30 billion watched the tournament.[32] These types of numbers are heartwarming for FIFA, corporate sponsors, and advertisers.
The World Cup is a business and marketing bonanza for FIFA and its corporate sponsors. It is estimated that hosting a World Cup today makes FIFA the equivalent revenue of twelve Super Bowls and can provide 5,000 to 8,000 jobs for host cities.[33] FIFA’s financial record is indeed healthy and robust, even during an economic downturn precipitated by the 2008 global financial crisis. In 2010, FIFA’s financial statements indicated that its profits soared to US$1.1 billion.[34]
Corporations that sell and market soccer also look forward to the World Cup. The sales of Adidas products doubled as a result of the 2010 World Cup. “After the first ten days it is already clear that this World Cup will be a great success for Adidas. We will not only achieve our ambitious goals in football, we will over-achieve them. Our football business is growing worldwide. This underlines the global power this tournament has,” insisted Herbert Hainer, a CEO of Adidas.[35] For Adidas the 2010 World Cup represented record sales of at least €1.5 billion in the soccer category, a 15 percent jump from 2008 and a 25 percent increase from the 2006 World Cup.[36] Sales are healthiest in Germany, Mexico, Argentina, and South Africa, with sales of one million units or more for each of those countries.
If Mexico does not qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, it will have severe economic repercussions, argues one marketing expert: “Rogelio Roa, commercial director of the sports marketing firm DreaMatch Solutions, says his company estimates that consumer brands and TV stations won’t make about $600 million in selling products and services if Mexico stays home.”[37] Thus, it was not without irony that when the United States defeated Panama 3–2 in injury time in the fall of 2013, it revived Mexican hopes for qualification by allowing them to enter the playoffs against New Zealand. It also led to a flurry of rare pro-America sentiments in Mexican newspapers and the press in general, including phrases such as “God Bless America” and “We Love You.” Mexican TV Azteca announcer Christian Martinoli fully captured this spirit after the United States scored a late equalizer against Panama:
It is because of the USA that we are being placed in the playoff . . . BECAUSE OF THEM, NOT DUE TO YOU . . . NOT ANY OF YOU in the green shirts . . . IT WAS THEM!! NOT YOU! . . . THEY DID IT!!!!! NOT YOU! Remember this forever . . . KEEP THIS CLEARLY IN MIND FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES! You do NOTHING for the shirt, you do NOT put the effort, you have NOT placed us in the playoffs, you HAVE NOT placed us in the WORLD CUP . . . YOU WOULD NOT HAVE KEPT US ALIVE . . . IT WAS THE USA, NOT YOU! NOT YOU AND YOUR ARROGANCE/CONCEIT . . . NOT YOU AND YOUR INFAMY . . . NOT YOU AND YOUR MORONS/PUNKS . . .
IT IS A FAILURE . . . and UNDESERVED—to go through to the playoff—WE HAD NO ARGUMENTS to earn the playoffs, THE USA, WITH SUBS, WITH MANY SUBS as the visiting team shows us once again what the USA is all about . . . how to play the game with dignity, how to approach the sport . . . Mexico is a horror, just terrible . . . A FAILURE . . .
THE USA HAS SURPASSED US . . . They are better than Mexico in SOCCER . . . THEY EVEN HAVE THE LUXURY OF PLAYING THEIR SUBS and KEEPING US LIVE . . . I hope our coach resigns . . . He has failed as a coach . . .[38]
Advertisers also make far more money from soccer World Cups than Olympic Games.[39] Deloitte’s projected marketing revenue for FIFA between 2010 and 2014 stands at more than US$1.2 billion.[40] McDonald’s Corp., Canon Inc., Sony Corp., Coca-Cola Co., Continental, and Adidas pay large sums for sponsorship to “broadcast their logos to billions of viewers across the globe as well as stadium fans.”[41] This creates a company presence, which helps to generate sales and profits.
In addition, one author estimates that the World Cup host can be expected to increase its GDP by an average of 4 percent as a result of hosting the world’s most popular sporting event.[42] The 1986 World Cup was to be held in Colombia, but it was switched to Mexico. There are rumors that Nike pressured FIFA to change the venue away from Colombia due its excessive poverty and the violence of the “war on drugs,” as well as because of its desire to increase profits.[43] The World Cup in Mexico was one of the most exciting in recent memory, with Diego Maradona of Argentina the indisputable star, and FIFA a winner as a result of having the World Cup in Mexico instead of Colombia.
FIFA, soccer clubs, corporate sponsors, and many players also make astronomical profits. Some soccer players are akin to brand names: David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi today, or Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, or Ronaldo in the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium.
We do not typically think of professional soccer players as exploited, but most players are not brand stars such as Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. Alan G. Ingham explained the rise of brand sports stars and those that sell them by using Marxist language:
Potential buys new, higher quality means of production. Eventually, we may exchange the products of our labor for a wage. Those who supply the means of production (sponsors, owners, organizations, associations, etc.) buy our potentials as labor power. They expect a return on investment. They sell us higher quality means of production (better facilities, uniforms, travel, etc.) only if our talents warrant it and only if the wages (and their investments in the means of production) are lower than the overall exchange-value. The cheapest payments are honorific (cups, medals, and other trophies). The more expensive are professional player contracts. But, the entire feeder system, from bottom to top, is overdetermined by the exchange-value creating capacities of labour—anticipated and real. Our commitment to produce at the Prolympic (the confluence of Olympic and Professional elite athletic systems) level renders us complicitous in our own and our parents’ exploitation.[44]
Clubs make profits from the sale of players and in our age players are sold with extreme regularity. Paolo Maldini, who I covered in chapter 3, spent his entire career at AC Milan. This is a rarity in today’s commercial-driven soccer. Steve Claridge (b. 1966), currently a commentator with BBC Sport, played at all levels of English professional and semi-professional soccer for nineteen different clubs and scored over 300 goals from 1983 to 2012. Paul Warhurst, who began his career with Manchester City, played for a whopping sixteen clubs. Christian Vieri, a former Italian international, played for thirteen clubs, including eight different clubs in seven seasons. His best performances were with Inter Milan, where he scored 103 goals in 143 appearances.
The Uruguayan striker Sebastián Abreu Gallo (b. 1976), who has represented Uruguay at two World Cups and is known as El Loco (The Madman), began the 2013–2014 season with Nacional in Uruguay and was loaned to Argentinean outfit Rosario Central. In a career that began with Montevideo-based Defensor in 1996, Abreu has played for more than twenty teams in seven different countries: Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, Greece, Israel, and Spain. He had eleven loan spells with different clubs around the world. His most prolific spells include the 2002–2003 loan spell with Mexican side Cruz Azul where he netted an impressive forty-six goals in fifty-two matches, as well as his twenty-four goals in fifty matches for Brazilian side Botafogo since 2010. Abreu scored the decisive penalty for Uruguay in the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup against Ghana in audacious Panenka-style, thus taking Uruguay to the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time since 1970. It was arguably the single greatest artistic moment of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Another current journeyman is the Panamanian international striker Luis Tejada (b. 1982), known as El Matador (The Killer) for his impressive strike rate with various clubs and countries. His club side in 2013 was Mexico’s Veracruz, his twelfth professional team in a career that began with Panamanian outfit Tauro FC in 2001 and has since taken him to Colombia, the United Arab Emirates, Peru, and Mexico.
In short, the regularity of player transfers and loans today nets clubs healthy profits and leads them to view soccer as a business rather than merely a game. Clubs do not consider the human impact of the transfers and loan spells on the players. Players might gain experience through loans, but they feel caught between their parent and new clubs. Writing in The Guardian, Richard Williams suggested an overhaul to the loan system in Britain:
The whole business needs reforming, starting with a reconsideration of the rule allowing Football League clubs to borrow up to 10 players at any time and to play five of them in a single match. These numbers are too great. Supporters do not care who gets the promotion but, when times are bad, how can they be expected to maintain a deep and consoling affinity for a side stuffed with players who are, after all, only waiting for the call to return to their five-star lives in the Premier League?[45]
Forbes list of the twenty richest soccer clubs demonstrates the tremendous economic pull of the major European teams. The clubs on the list are all European. Italy’s Napoli is listed at number twenty with $167 million in revenue. Manchester United is the richest club, with $532 million in revenue and the club is valued at $2.23 billion.[46] The other richest clubs in terms of their value include: Real Madrid ($1.88 billion), Barcelona ($1.33 billion), Arsenal ($1.29 billion), Bayern Munich ($1.23 billion), AC Milan ($989 million), Chelsea ($761 million), Liverpool ($619 million), Juventus ($591 million), and Schalke 04 ($587 million). Manchester City, the winners of the English Premier League title in 2011–2012, is valued at $443 million. Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique Marseille are the only two French clubs on the list, valued at $385 million and $359 million, respectively. The top twenty richest clubs are from only five countries: England (6), Italy (5), Germany (4) Spain (3), and France (2).
Very few players belong to wealthy clubs and thus benefit from belonging to the richest clubs in the world. The millennium opened with the highest transaction in the history of soccer when Real Madrid paid Juventus of Turin a whopping US$73 million for the services of French midfield genius Zinedine Zidane.[47] In 2013, the Uruguayan international striker Edinson Cavani was transferred from Italian club Napoli to Paris Saint-Germain for a whopping €64 million (US$85 million).[48] The Cavani signing surpassed another record transfer in the same year: Colombian international Radamel Falcao’s €60 million (US$80 million) move from Atlético de Madrid to Monaco. Topping all player transfers in soccer history is the Welsh international Gareth Bale. When he moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid in 2013, the Spanish media reported a transfer fee of €91 million (US$121 million), while the English press insisted that there was a world record transfer fee of €101 million (US$135 million).[49] If the latter figure is correct, Bale’s transfer shatters Cristiano Ronaldo’s old transfer record fee of €94 million (US$125 million) from Manchester United to Real Madrid.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, discussed earlier in this chapter, topped Zidane when he became the most expensive soccer player in history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid.[50] In addition, his contract with Real Madrid pays him €12 million (US$16 million) per year, making him one of the highest-paid players in the world.[51] In 2010, France Football put Ronaldo at third in a list of the world’s best-paid soccer players.[52] Only David Beckham and Lionel Messi topped Ronaldo. In 2011, Messi earned a combined salary both on and off the field of €33 million (US$44 million), Beckham €31.5 million (US$42.1 million), and Ronaldo €29.2 million (US$39 million).[53]
The Portuguese international and the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1998 has so far rewarded Real Madrid handsomely, netting, at the time of writing in 2013, more than one goal per game for the Spanish club. His eighty-four goals with Manchester United from 2003 to 2009 and his breathtaking performances on the pitch earned twenty-two-year-old Ronaldo plaudits from a retired Dutch master, Johan Cruyff, who insisted the Portuguese winger was the best player in the history of Manchester United: “Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United.”[54] Ronaldo’s former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, whom Ronaldo called “my father in sport,” went further than Cruyff in 2009: “I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world. He is better than Kaká and better than Messi. He is streets ahead of them all. His contribution as a goal threat is unbelievable. His stats are incredible. Strikes at goal, attempts on goal, raids into the penalty box, headers. It is all there. Absolutely astounding.”[55] In his autobiography, Ferguson insisted that Ronaldo was the most gifted player he ever managed, with only Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs coming close in skill and determination.[56] In short, club sides have paid handsomely for Ronaldo, but he scores at an alarming rate that far surpasses Beckham, Messi (as of 2013, Messi scored 214 goals in 246 matches for Barcelona), Neymar, or any other contemporary soccer player.
Ronaldo already has an autobiography entitled Moments (2007). David Beckham penned David Beckham: My Side (2002) and two co-authored works with Dean Freeman and Tom Watt, respectively, entitled Beckham: My World (2001) and Beckham: Both Feet on the Ground (2003). These autobiographies help to promote the marketing cults of Ronaldo and Beckham.
The business ventures of Ronaldo are indeed extensive. Ronaldo opened two boutique shops in Portugal called CR7, named after his initials and shirt number. A YouTube video entitled “The CR7 Shop” shows Ronaldo modeling some of the high-priced fashion accessories of his boutique.[57] His official website, www.cristianoronaldoofficial.com, features the Portuguese international in the national kit sponsored by Nike. Ronaldo is posing as if he is ready for a match: proud, trim, and fit, and a menacing figure for defenses around the world. Ronaldo features prominently in Nike television advertisements. In December 2011, Cristiano Ronaldo, in conjunction with developer RockLive, launched an iPhone game called Heads Up with Cristiano. In 2012, Ronaldo worked with Castrol Edge in a live-streamed soccer challenge with fans. In 2013, Ronaldo became the public face of Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. At 10 million Facebook fans, Ronaldo is a worldwide icon on social media. According to Forbes (2012), Ronaldo had the fifth-highest social rank in social media in the world in 2012, with only Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Katy Perry topping the Portuguese soccer star.[58]
If it was not for Lionel Messi (arguably the world’s best player today), Cristiano Ronaldo would have won more personal trophies than (and his marketing thrust might have surpassed) Beckham. Furthermore, Renaldo’s personality is at times a marketing hindrance, and he is perceived as more serious, a complainer, and more of a lady’s man than David Beckham. Ronaldo is undoubtedly one of the most scintillating, exciting, and lethal players the world has ever seen. The Portuguese coach of Chelsea, José Mourinho, laments Cristiano Ronaldo’s unfair treatment compared to Messi:
If Messi is the best on the planet, Ronaldo is the best in the universe. If you are going to give out the Ballon d’Or because a player is the best, give it to Cristiano or Messi. But I ask: if the two are on the same level, is it normal that one wins four and the other one? It is not.[59]
While Cristiano Ronaldo did not do a shabby job of marketing himself and was clearly a more productive soccer player in terms of goal totals than Beckham or even Messi, Beckham could out brand them all. In 2012, one year before his retirement, David Beckham was the top-ranked soccer player, at thirty-two in the Forbes list of the World’s Most Popular Celebrities.[60] He was in thirty-fifth place in earnings, forty-fourth spot in television and radio popularity, seventeenth highest in the press, sixth in the social ranking category, and twenty-sixth in terms of web presence.
In a piece entitled “Beckham the worldwide brand,” Simon Moon writes that the English superstar is “as instantly recognisable as that of multinational companies like Coca-Cola and IBM.”[61] His £116,000-a-week (US$186,500) salary at Real Madrid was “small change compared to the £17m-plus [US$27 million] he earns every year from the likes of mobile phone giant Vodafone and Gillette whose products he promotes.”[62] “David Beckham is a sports marketer’s dream—talented, photogenic and with a pop-star wife. He is the England captain, arguably England’s most gifted player and almost certainly the world’s most famous footballer,” insisted Alex Chapman, a partner at London firm Briffa.[63]
Beckham and “Spice Girl” Victoria Beckham became fashion icons and his wife clearly helped his off-field marketing and business ventures. The two became spokespeople for major clothing designers, health and fitness specialists, fashion magazines, perfume and cosmetics manufacturers, hair stylists, exercise promoters, and spa and recreation companies. Beckham appeared on the cover of Details and his wife in W. David Beckham Instinct is a fragrance line that the English star promoted. He has a marketing collaboration agreement with Pepsi. His clean, sexy, extremely well-groomed image and appeal to gay and straight people alike earned Beckham the title of world’s most famous “metrosexual” by the man who invented the term.[64] Mark Simpson joked about Beckham as a metrosexual: “He’s well dressed, narcissistic and obsessed with butts. But don’t call him gay.”[65]
Beckham increased the appeal of the “Beckham brand” when he visited British soldiers in Afghanistan in 2010. His charity work has also earned him marketing appeal, including being a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, a spokesman for Malaria No More, and in conjunction with other MLS stars, teaching life skills to disadvantaged youth in Harlem. Films such as Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and the trilogy Goal!: The Dream Begins further promoted the marketing success of Beckham. Even his tattoos can be viewed as an art collage, which helps to add to the Beckham mystique and market the “Beckham brand.” One of his tattoos is a giant winged cross on his neck and another is a Bible verse written in Hebrew.[66]
As “The David Beckham Brand,” a marketing case study, made clear, the English star was a global marketing icon:
David Beckham was one of the most popular soccer stars in the late 1990s and the early 21st century. His amazing ability to score from free kicks coupled with his good looks earned him a lot of admirers in Europe and Asia. He was also one of the most sought after celebrities to endorse products and a number of important companies vied to sign him on for endorsements.
Born of middle class parents, David Beckham was obsessed with football from his childhood and always dreamed of playing professionally. He was signed up by Manchester United, one of the most popular football clubs in Europe, first as a trainee and later, as a full-fledged member of the club.[67]
Beckham quickly made a name for himself, with his signature free kicks where he had the ability to curve the ball in the air toward the goal, misleading defenders and goalkeepers. Beckham and his wife, “Spice Girl” Victoria Adams, were fashion icons in the United Kingdom and merited a lot of tabloid coverage. They were also sought-after endorsers of a number of products.
Beckham was roundly praised for his marketing acumen both inside and outside the soccer world. Emilio Butragueño, a Real Madrid official, former Spanish international, and legendary Real Madrid star, said this about Beckham’s marketing impact in 2003: “Right now he is one of the most important players in the world in terms of marketing. . . . Beckham is an icon.”[68] “The brand is exceptional and the potential is enormous. No other sports star has the brand placing or personality of Beckham,” wrote John Williamson of Wolff Olins.[69] The sports analyst at Field Fisher Waterhouse, Michael Sterling, said this about the former English international: “He’s a sponsor’s dream: a fashion icon, associated with success, a family man. Because of Beckham, football is no longer just about football, but about character and personality.”[70]
When he played, the “Beckham brand” transcended national borders. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are global stars that sell the Real Madrid and Barcelona brands to a global audience of billions of soccer fans. The soccer superstars also sell brand names such as Nike or Adidas and they are themselves branded by marketing companies with a truly global reach. Wieden and Kennedy, the marketing company that created Nike’s global soccer campaigns, can be credited for turning superstar soccer players into brands. It was back in 1985 with a television advertisement that Nike turned a basketball star, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, into a player brand. As a result of the branding of major soccer players and big clubs, you can travel from Hong Kong to Accra and Milan to Toronto and you will see the same jerseys of marquee players and major clubs. It was thus no accident that as the 2006 World Cup began in Germany, Nike’s advertisement slogan was distinctly designed to sell soccer products by capitalizing on populist, anti-government sentiments: “Leave the discussions to the politicians, it’s the year of the World Cup.”
Aside from Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, my other possible number 7 choice was George Best (1946–2005). He was a real showman on the pitch, repeatedly terrorizing defenders, nutmegging (putting a ball through a player’s legs) players with regularity, and scoring audacious goals through sheer dribbling genius. There was perhaps no more entertaining player to watch in his day than Best. Yet Best was afflicted by the vices of drinking and womanizing. He admitted to have wasted 90 percent of his earnings on alcohol and women.[71] Best insisted that in 1969 he “gave up women and alcohol, and it was the worst twenty minutes of my life.”[72]
Best was one of the earliest soccer pop icons with Manchester United in the 1960s. David Beckham and later Cristiano Ronaldo would take that pop icon status to another level in the 1990s and new millennium. Best was the Beckham or Ronaldo of his day, with no less than six autobiographies about him. He advertised sausages on television, made television and film appearances, and was featured in fashion magazine GQ as one of the fifty sexiest men.[73] George Best was such a legend that Belfast’s international airport is named after the Northern Ireland international—George Best Belfast City airport. When he won the European Cup with Manchester United in 1968, he also won the prestigious European Player of the Year award. He is undoubtedly the greatest Northern Irish international of all time. In a career that spanned from 1963 to 1984, with stops at Manchester United, the Jewish Guild (South Africa), several NASL clubs, Fulham, Cork Celtic, and Brisbane Lions, among other clubs, Best scored 208 goals in nearly 600 matches. He added nine goals in thirty-seven matches for Northern Ireland, but never appeared in a World Cup. Yet Best was a brilliant player with Manchester United, where he was the club’s leading scorer for six consecutive seasons, and was the First Division’s highest scorer in the 1967–1968 season.
Like Best, Wynton Rufer (b. 1962) was right-winger or striker, wearing the number 7 for New Zealand’s national team and the number 11 shirt for Werder Bremen. Born to a Swiss father and a mother of Maori descent in Wellington, Rufer is the greatest player in the history of New Zealand and the Oceania Soccer Confederation. Rufer was the Oceania Player of the Century and a three-time winner of the Oceania Footballer of the Year. He opened the door for many players in his region by performing admirably for European club sides Grasshoper Club-Zurich (Switzerland) and Werder Bremen (Germany). He helped Bremen win six domestic titles from 1989 until 1995 and scored fifty-nine goals in 174 matches for the German club. The 1992–1993 season was especially propitious for Rufer, when he scored seventeen goals for Werder Bremen as the club won its third championship in its history. He scored in the 1993 finals of the Cup Winners’ Cup when Bremen defeated Monaco 2–0. In the UEFA Champions League season of 1993, he finished joint top scorer in the competition. Rufer also played in the 1982 World Cup for New Zealand. By the time he retired in his native New Zealand with club side Kingz in 2002, Rufer had amassed 224 goals in 539 club appearances in New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, and Japan. His career began with New Zealand side Stop Out in 1980, meaning that he played professional soccer for an incredible twenty-two years! He was almost forty when he retired.
For New Zealand’s national team, known as the “All Whites,” Rufer scored twelve goals in twenty-three appearances from 1980 until 1997. He did not appear more times for his country because clubs like Zurich refused to release him for international duty, highlighting the importance of players’ health for the business of professional clubs. At the age of seventeen, Rufer had already scored for New Zealand in World Cup qualifying. He scored the winner against China one year later, which allowed New Zealand to qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain for the first time in its history. He was only nineteen at the 1982 World Cup and played in all three first-round matches, the losses against Brazil, the Soviet Union, and Scotland. For all his soccer accomplishments, Rufer was awarded the prestigious New Zealand Order of Merit.
Rufer was fast, fit, technically gifted, and a lethal finisher. He stayed healthy long enough to have a very long and illustrious career. He would take his penalty kicks with the ease of a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. Give him a few inches and Rufer could go around you in a flash. He was a true professional, a gifted winger, and a New Zealand legend. It is fitting that today Rufer is attempting to create the soccer stars of tomorrow. He now runs the Wynton Rufer Soccer School of Excellence in various cities in New Zealand, Germany, and Japan.[74] In short, the marketing of soccer stars continues long after they have ended their careers.
* * *
In conclusion, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo are truly representative of the growth of modern soccer as a business and its global marketing appeal. The game brands star players such as David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi. Beckham’s marketing impact in North America was so great that the “Beckham effect” is named after him, namely, the ability to lure major soccer stars to once obscure domestic leagues around the world. I coined the term the “Raúl effect” with respect to brand soccer stars marketing obscure soccer leagues in Asia, playing on the term the “Beckham effect.” A former Real Madrid legend, Raúl plays for Qatar Stars League club Al Sadd since 2012. Christian Benítez, the talented Ecuadorian international, played for El Jaish SC in the Qatar Stars League shortly before he died of peritonitis in 2013. As the commercialization of the game grows, brands connote “an integrated approach to marketing and business strategy and applied to a specific logo or brand” and they can even be found among left-wing and anarchist supporters’ groups (for example, Beşiktaş Çarşı from Istanbul) selling their t-shirts, lighters, and mugs emblazoned with the popular, anti-capitalist logo of the movement.[75]
In addition, it is statistically proven that buying such high-priced stars with talent allows major clubs to win domestic and international championships as “the ball does not go in by chance.”[76] Or, to quote one rabid Mexican soccer fan, “Soccer is a science”[77] and the richest clubs are the “scientists” of success through their profits and titles. World Cup contests are tools designed to expand business and marketing opportunities for FIFA, companies, and national teams beyond the traditional soccer markets in Europe and South America.
Moreover, although most hard-core nationalists would like us to believe that we should die on and off the pitch for the nation, FIFA views nationalism in pragmatic terms as a strategy designed to improve its image, market professional soccer, and generate profits. Finally, recall the discussion in chapter 3 about the role of “spin merchants” in promoting ideological hegemony. The “spin masters” include soccer’s public relations, media relations, advertising, and marketing specialists. Ingham argued that the role of “spin merchants” is to “dream up euphoric rites/rituals to reaffirm the moral authority of liberal democratic societies as the capitalist classes and the functionaries of the State have envisioned it on their terms.”[78]
Calvin Coolidge, “The Press Under a Free Government,” Address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 17 January 1925, Washington, D.C., Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation.
Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann, Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010), 32–33.
Ibid., 37.
Ben Rycroft, “Beckham attracted media, but MLS has driven its own growth,” CBC Sports, 3 December 2012, http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/opinion/2012/12/beckham-attracted-media-attention-but-mls-drove-the-growth.html (5 December 2012).
Premier Soccer Stats, “All Time Player Records,” Premier Soccer Stats, 2012, http://www.premiersoccerstats.com/Records.cfm?DOrderby=Ass&DYearby=All%20Seasons (27 September 2012).
Nick Harris, “Ferguson will never talk to the BBC again,” The Independent, 6 September 2007, http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ferguson-will-never-talk-to-the-bbc-again-401487.html (27 September 2012).
Martin Hardy, “End of his Galaxy quest: Where now for David Beckham?” The Independent, 21 November 2012, http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/end-of-his-galaxy-quest-where-now-for-david-beckham-8329694.html (31 July 2013).
Alex Ferguson (with Paul Hayward), Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography (London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 2013).
Irish Examiner, “Beckham: I can’t hold grudge against Fergie,” Irish Examiner, 31 October 2013, http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/beckham-i-cant-hold-grudge-against-fergie-611748.html (6 November 2013).
Ibid.
David Beckham, David Beckham’s Website, 2012, http://www.davidbeckham.com/ (28 September 2012).
Associated Press, “Beckham set to invade America,” ESPN Soccer, 12 January 2007, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=soccer&id=2728604 (28 September 2012).
The Sunday Times, “Britain’s rich list—David and Victoria Beckham,” The Sunday Times, 26 April 2009.
Sam Wallace, “Beckham rejected Milan and Inter to take Galaxy millions,” The Independent, 12 January 2007, http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/beckham-rejected-milan-and-inter-to-take-galaxy-millions-431736.html (28 September 2012).
Ibid.
Luca Caioli, Ronaldo: The Obsession for Perfection (London: Icon, 2012).
Ceroacero, “Ronaldo makes history scoring against every La Liga team,” Ceroacero, 13 May 2012, http://www.ceroacero.es/noticia.php?id=63858 (5 December 2012).
Sammy Said, “Cristiano Ronaldo Net Worth,” The Richest, 2013, http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/athletes/footballer/cristiano-ronaldo-net-worth/ (6 November 2013).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Jason Chester, “Ronaldo emulates David Beckham as he launches his debut underwear range in spectacular fashion,” Mail Online, 31 October 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2481755/Cristiano-Ronaldo-attempts-outdo-David-Beckham-underwear-range.html (6 November 2013).
Ibid.
Kofi A. Annan, “How We Envy the World Cup,” United Nations, June 2006, http://www.un.org/sport2005/newsroom/worldcup.pdf (15 July 2013).
Manuel Gameros, “Las goles de la FIFA,” Foreign Affairs En Español 6, no. 3 (Julio–Septiembre 2006), 126.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 127.
Brian Glanville, The Story of the World Cup (London: Faber and Faber, 1993), 45.
Markovits and Rensmann, Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture, 38–39.
FIFA, “2006 FIFA World Cup broadcast wider, longer and farther than ever before,” FIFA, 6 February 2007, http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/news/newsid=111247/index.html (29 September 2012).
Gameros, “Las goles de la FIFA,” 128.
Mark Wheeler, “Hosting World Cup would draw revenue like 12 Super Bowls,” The City Paper (Nashville), 13 June 2010, http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/hosting-world-cup-would-draw-revenue-12-super-bowls (29 September 2012).
Peter Pedroncelli, “World Cup 2010: FIFA Revenue Tops A Billion Dollars For The First Time,” Goal, 22 March 2010, http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1786/fifa/2010/03/22/1844168/world-cup-2010-fifa-revenue-tops-a-billion-dollars-for-the-first- (29 September 2012).
Adidas, “2010 FIFA World Cup already sales success for adidas,” Adidas Group, 21 June 2010, http://www.adidas-group.com/en/pressroom/archive/2010/21June2010.aspx (29 September 2012).
Ibid.
David Richard, “Mexico’s World Cup qualifying chances in ‘Crisis’ mode,” USA Today, 11 September 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2013/09/11/mexico-world-cup-qualifying/2802243/ (6 November 2013).
Bryan Preston, “Mexican TV Announcer Goes on Epic PRO-AMERICA Rant After the U.S. Saves Mexico’s World Cup Hopes,” PJ Media, 16 October 2013, http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/10/16/mexican-tv-announcer-goes-on-epic-pro-america-rant-after-the-us-saves-mexicos-world-cup-hopes/ (6 November 2013).
Simon Zekaria, “Soccer Still the Main Event for Advertisers,” The Wall Street Journal, 17 September 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100008723963904444500045780000
21105998576.html (29 September 2012).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Gameros, “Las goles de la FIFA,” 127.
Ibid.
Alan G. Ingham, “The Sportification Process: A Biographical Analysis Framed by the Work of Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Freud,” in R. Giulianotti, ed., Sport and Modern Social Theorists (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 17–18.
Richard Williams, “Football’s short-team loan system is in dire need of reformation,” The Guardian, 22 February 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/feb/22/football-loans-richard-williams (6 November 2013).
The Richest, “Richest Football Clubs 2012—World’s Most Valuable Football Teams,” Forbes, 20 April 2012, http://www.therichest.org/sports/richest-football-clubs/ (28 September 2012).
Fausto Pretelin Muñoz de Cote, “El imperio global de fútbol,” Foreign Affairs En Español 6, no. 3 (Julio–Septiembre 2006), 138.
Goal, “Paris Saint-Germain seal Cavani signing,” Goal, 26 July 2013, http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2013/07/16/4114477/breaking-news-paris-saint-germain-seal-cavani-signing?ICID=HP_BN_1 (30 August 2013).
FIFA, “Bale: I want to help Real win Champions League,” FIFA, 2 September 2013, http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=2166551.html?intcmp=
fifacom_hp_module_news (2 September 2013).
BBC, “Ronaldo agrees six-year Real deal,” BBC Online Network, 26 June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8121951.stm (28 September 2012).
Ibid.
IBN Live, “Messi tops rich list ahead of Beckham,” IBN Live, 23 March 2012, http://ibnlive.in.com/news/messi-tops-rich-list-ahead-of-beckham/242045-5-21.html (28 September 2012).
Ibid.
Press TV, “Cruyff: Ronaldo, United’s best ever,” Press TV, 2 April 2008, http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/49967.html (28 September 2012).
Soccernet, “Cristiano Ronaldo,” Soccernet.espn, 2012, http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/22774/cristiano-dos-santos-aveiro-ronaldo?cc=3888 (28 September 2012).
Alex Ferguson (with Paul Hayward), Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography.
YouTube, “The CR7 Shop,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_FdylBD_mc (31 July 2013).
Forbes, “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities,” Forbes, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/celebrities/#p_4_s_a0_All%20categories (28 September 2012).
The Guardian, “If Messi is best on planet, Ronaldo is best in universe—José Mourinho,” The Guardian, 12 October 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/oct/12/messi-ronaldo-mourinho-ballon-dor (31 July 2013).
Forbes, “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities.”
Simon Moon, “Beckham the worldwide brand,” Mail Online, 8 June 2006, http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1599337/Beckham-the-worldwide-brand.html (31 July 2013).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Mark Simpson, “Meet the metrosexual,” Salon, 22 July 2002, http://www.salon.com/2002/07/22/metrosexual/ (31 July 2013).
Ibid.
David Beckham, David Beckham: My Side (New York: HarperCollins Willow, 2003).
The David Beckham Brand, “The David Beckham Brand,” ICMR, 2003, http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Marketing/MKTG077.htm (28 September 2012).
Ibid., 1.
Ibid.
Ibid.
John May, “The best and worst of a legend,” BBC Online Network, 25 November 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/4312792.stm (29 September 2012).
Sean Hotchkiss, “Your Morning Shot: George Best,” GQ, 29 November 2011, http://www.gq.com/style/blogs/the-gq-eye/2011/11/your-morning-shot-george-best.html (7 November 2013).
Ibid.
Wynton Rufer, “Wynton Rufer Soccer School of Excellence,” Wynton Rufer’s Website, 2012, http://www.wynrs.co.nz/ (21 October 2012).
John McManus, “Been There, Done That, Bought the T-Shirt: Besiktas Fans and the Commodification of Football in Turkey,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45 (2013), 10–11.
My translation. Ferran Soriano, La pelota no entra por azar (México, D.F.: Santillana, 2012), 53–57.
Carlos Monsiváis, Los rituales del caos (México, D.F.: Ediciones Era, 2001), 31.
Ingham, “The Sportification Process: A Biographical Analysis Framed by the Work of Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Freud,” 27.