Euros are UEFA's money-spinner

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  1. Loh

    Loh Regular Member

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    04:45 AM Jun 07, 2012

    WARSAW - The European Championships is one of the world's biggest sporting events, economically at least.

    The three-week long, 16-team, 31-match tournament in Poland and Ukraine will rake in at least US$1.6 billion (S$2 billion) for UEFA, rivalling FIFA's 32-nation World Cup.

    Its average television audiences of 150 million fans worldwide is bigger than the Super Bowl, while an audience of 237 million for the Euro 2008 final was worthy of a Summer Olympics opening ceremony.

    Teams also get bigger participation fees than the World Cup and clubs get a bigger share than FIFA gives from World Cup revenues, which help explain why six major FIFA sponsors partner UEFA for the Euros.

    "You can see it is mega," said David Taylor, chief executive of UEFA Events, which has contracts with 203 broadcasters.

    "Certainly, when we are talking to sponsors and others, they are interested in the wider global impact."

    "We would never claim to be bigger than the World Cup. But you can see in certain territories, if your own national team is doing well you get some very good numbers."

    Despite the global downturn and doubts over the co-hosts, the 31-match tournament should reap US$51.6 million a game, compared to the 2010 World Cup, which gave FIFA average earnings of US$56.7 million and US$3.6 billion in commercial revenue.

    "It's very robust and a good performance commercially to come up with these numbers," Taylor said.

    "Particularly given the environment in which we were working and the countries concerned.

    "At the outset we were unsure how our sponsors would react to go to eastern Europe, and going to these countries in particular, but the reaction has been positive."

    Commercial revenues for the Champions League top US$1.6 billion for each of the next three seasons, while England's Premier League has 20 clubs sharing almost US$1.54 billion in prize money last season.

    Still, UEFA will profit from Euro 2012, though short of the US$394 million from Euro 2008.

    UEFA spent more than expected helping Poland and Ukraine manage the Euro 2012 project, with a US$49,750 payment per match added for teams flying between the two co-hosts for games.

    UEFA will also pay clubs US$124 million as daily-rate compensation for releasing their players - compared to the US$70 million FIFA will pay to bring twice as many players to the 2014 World Cup - with a further US$244 million in participation and prize money paid to the 16 national associations by UEFA.

    A team can earn a maximum US$23 million for lifting the trophy having won all three group games. Spain got US$30 million from FIFA for its 2010 World Cup title.

    Euro 2016 in France will have 24 teams and 51 matches. At today's rate, that's a US$2.6 billion tournament. AP


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    Sale of official merchandise and broadcasting of games will help boost Euro 2012 coffers. REUTERS​
     

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