Do You Know The Hidden Costs Of Your Football?
Football, often described as the beautiful game, captivates hearts and strong emotions worldwide. The multi billion pound industry has many revenue streams from tv deals, ticket sales, sponsorship deals and merchandise. Clubs have the potential to earn millions each week but this money hides a shocking added cost to your merchandise. Moreover the football you purchase could be costing you over £100 extra, due to hidden costs not actually associated with the manufacturing process. So, what are the shocking hidden costs of your football?
A good quality training football will cost between £10 and £15. However, a professional quality football will be in excess of £125. Why the difference and what makes it so expensive? Can the price difference be justified and where do the hidden costs come from?
- Materials used in the construction of a football have an impact on the rrp however, not as much as you might think.
- Sponsoship deals the football brand might enter into, will add significant amounts to the rrp.
- Shipping costs are a major factor too. India, Pakistan and China are the dominant countries for football manufacture. In recent years shipping costs have trebled so now form a significant part of the balls cost.
- FIFA Approval isn’t free and getting a FIFA stamp on the football also adds to costs.
What Materials Are Footballs Made With?
Leather has a long history as the material of choice for the construction of footballs. Still, its porous nature made it soak up moisture, becoming heavier and harder to handle in wet and cold weather. In the 1960s, a new manufacturing technique made it possible to coat the leather football with a polyurethane material. This outer layer ensured the football was waterproof and much more reliable. This construction method was slow to reach grassroots football though as the cost to manufacture the balls was still relatively expensive.
In 1986, the football manufacturing scene got a major upgrade with the launch of a fully synthetic leather ball featuring a polyurethane coating. This was the legendary Adidas Azteca, marking the first fully synthetic football used in the Mexico World Cup.
Today, polyurethane-coated footballs are everywhere. The differences in quality come from the layers beneath the outer coating, which decide if the ball is best for training, casual matches, or professional play. The type of bladder also affects the price. Interestingly, the materials for a match ball only add a few pence to the cost compared to a training ball. However, the high production volume of training balls helps keep their retail prices low.
How Much Does It Cost To Sponsor The EFL or Premier League?
Many football brands look to become ball sponsors/suppliers of at least one of the major football leagues around the world. The Premier League ball supplier is probably one of the most sort after contracts. The English Football League (EFL) is also a premium league, with brands fighting hard to win the contract. Mitre Footballs were the 1st Official ball suppier to the FA Cup in 1966.From my time in retailing footballs, I heard rumours about the EFL football supplier deal. The headline figure was reported to be valued at £2 million annually. However, the true cost to the football brand was not as straightforward.
Every year the ball brand has to supply 200 footballs free of charge to every EFL club. If they sponsor a cup competition, then they would also have to supply a smaller number of those too.
The footballs are listed with a suggested retail price of about £140 each. Honestly, I think that’s way off the mark and just a tactic to make the £2 million sponsorship deal sound impressive. Certainly, obtaining FIFA Pro Approval for a football incurs various expenses; however, charging £140 for a single ball is simply unreasonable. It’s hard to believe that people actually shell out that kind of cash for them, but let’s move on from that, for now.
Given there are 72 clubs in the EFL, the ball supplier would need to provide around 14,400 footballs for free. Every club would recieve their 200 footballs with their own club crest printed on the football. If a club require further balls, then they are obliged to buy direct from the supplier at full rrp. These footballs would come from core stock and would not have the club crest printed on the ball.
Are Football League Sponsorship Deals Really Worth The Advertised Costs?
So the football brand has to supply 14,400 pro quality match footballs with an rrp of £140. This amounts to £2,016,000, hence the deal is now quoted at £2 million pounds. The actual costs to the ball supplier are a fraction of this amount though. Even if they did have to jump through hoops to get FIFA Approval. As a worst case scenario, I would estimate the actual cost to manufacture, ship and get FIFA Approval on a football would be in the region of £25 per football. A total cost to the ball brand of £360,000 and no where near the £2m quoted.
Rumour has it, that my local pro club placed an additional order for 20 footballs and had to pay the full rrp. A net profit of £2300 and if multiplied across every club in the EFL, would recover in excess of £165,000. Add into this the amount of pro quality footballs sold to the public then the cost of the league sponsorship deal is more than covered each year.
The exposure granted to the league football brand is worth the risk and the inital costs are more than covered. The sales from the replica footballs and training balls make this a very lucrative market to be in. No wonder the major football brands are bidding higher every time the deal becomes open to tender.
What Is The FIFA Quality Programme for Footballs?
According to the International Football Association Board’s Laws of the Game (IFAB), companies must be officially licensed under the FIFA Quality Programme for Footballs to supply footballs for official matches. To meet this requirement, the ball needs to have one of three quality marks. Companies can get these marks by following the FIFA Quality Programme, which offers two different licensing options for FIFA-certified balls.
This FIFA Quality Programme started back in 1996 to improve the quality of footballs produced and used all over the world. It does this by granting licenses to manufacturers whose products pass FIFA’s quality, consistency, and safety tests. Ball producers must provide essential regulatory documents about their company, like insurance and working conditions, along with a technical evaluation of the balls they make.
How Easy Is It To Get A Football FIFA Approved?
It can take at least 14 weeks to get a FIFA quality football processed and approved.
- Step 1 – Provide Documents. The first step is ensuring all the paperwork and compliance is up to date and in place.Select your preferred license agreement, either standard or basic, as the costs will differ based on your choice. Complete the company and brand registration document. Ensure your company complies with the World Federation of Sporting Goods Industry Pledge (WFSGI). There is a fee of CHF1500 for compliance which is payable in Swiss Francs (approx £1345). Provide suitable cover for your product liability insurance and complete the FIFA compliance questionnaire.
- Step 2 – Provide the footballs for testing (up to 6 weeks). After approving step 1, you can request the FIFA-accredited test institute and arrange testing. Send the requested number of football samples and include your FIFA test number.
- Step 3 – Complete the licence agreement (up to 4 weeks). If If the footballs pass testing, you will receive a document to sign via DocuSign.
- Step 4 – Complete payments as required (up to 3 weeks). At this point you now pay the outstanding fees.
- Step 5 – Complete final approval procedure (up to 1 week). Finally, you can print the FIFA mark and authorisation number onto a sample football. Take 3 photo’s of the approved ball in it’s final state and upload onto the FIFA Quality Programme Database.
How Much Does IT Cost To Get A Football FIFA Approved?
The fees stated are for the licence period 2021 to 2025. These will be updated when we hear of the 2025 to 2029 costs.
As mentioned there are 2 licences to choose from, Basic and Standard, both licences are for a full 4 year peiod. There are 3 levels of testing you can apply for FIFA Basic (formerly known as IMS), FIFA Quality and FIFA Quality Pro. The basic licence allows you to only use the FIFA Basic quality mark. You have to supply 6 footballs for testing and the cost is £500 per ball. This is on top of the test institute’s fees. It must be noted there are no royalties to pay to FIFA for this quality level.
The Standard licence allows you to use all 3 quality marks. If you are looking to supply major football leagues then you will need this level of licence. As such the licence fee is higher, whilst you also supply 9 footballs per model and size for testing. The licence fee for the 4 year period costs CHF20,000 (£17,940) however, there are now no further fees to test the 9 footballs (other than the test house fees). The CHF20,000 is the minimum royalties due over a licence period. The amount will be reduced by the royalties owed until it is fully depleted. After that, FIFA will invoice any additional royalties due at six-month intervals.
The FIFA royalties to pay for every ball distributed are as follows – CHF0.75 (£0.67) for the FIFA Quality mark and CHF1.50 (£1.35) for the FIFA Quality Pro mark. Recall I said previously, a league sponsor could supply 200 footballs per club so this alone would cost the manufacturer a further £300 in royalty fees.
Is It Worth a Football Brand Getting Their Footballs FIFA Approved?
The decision to seek FIFA Approval for a brands footballs is dependant on the need to supply balls to affiliated leagues. If this is the market the brand seeks then they must gain approval. They can also manufacture replica balls in the same style but not to the same quality and these would not carry the FIFA mark. This is a very lucrative market and is extremely profitable too, especially with the increased exposure from tv and social media. The market for training footballs and replica balls is massive and without this added exposure, can have an impact on the overall ball sales of the company.
To sum it up, if you’re aiming to become a big name in the football scene, getting FIFA Approval for at least one ball model is a must. The concept is that the sales of training and replica balls will offset the additional expenses. But really, it’s the consumers who end up footing the bill for that FIFA branding, and I can’t help but wonder how much those balls would cost without it. It is essential to ensure that the quality of the footballs remains exceptional. If significant quality issues arise, brands may be required to test additional balls during the licensing period.
If you are looking for help in choosing the right football for you, our Ultimate Football Buying Guide should help. It is lucky that training footballs avoid these hidden costs making them an affordable option for training.
