ManU has regained its status as the world’s "most popular football club by sales of official replica shirts," according to Alex Miller of SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
The Old Trafford club sold an average of 1.75 million shirts per year in the five-season period from '11-12 through '15-16.
That puts it in the No.1 spot in European football -- and the world. The data "has been compiled by industry insider Dr. Peter Rohlmann and his team at the consulting bureau, PR Marketing."
Real Madrid is second on the list, averaging 1.65 million shirts per year in the period under review "ahead of Barcelona in third, Bayern Munich in fourth and Chelsea in fifth." There is "major financial significance in being able to shift huge amounts of official merchandise." The more gear a club can sell, the more "money a manufacturer will pay to be an official kit supplier."
Chelsea confirmed its new £900M ($1.1B), 15-year deal with Nike last week, for example. ManU has a deal with adidas worth £75M ($91M) a year, while the Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona "both have new deals worth around" £100M ($122M) a year. That quartet "beat everyone else by some distance" (SPORTING INTELLIGENCE, 10/16).
