Turin (Italy) (AFP)
New logo, new jersey and Cristiano Ronaldo to broaden the horizons. For Juventus, the recruitment of the Portuguese superstar has been the centerpiece of an international sports and economic strategy, which should allow the club to remain competitive against European giants.
The world of J: Tuesday in Turin, a fan Juventino will visit the J-Museum before buying a jersey, now deprived of stripes and with a J as the only logo. Then, after seeing his team face Lokomotiv Moscow in the Champions League, he can go to sleep at "J-Hotel", 300 meters from the stadium and "J-Medical", the private clinic of the club.
This supporter will probably be a stranger, because this is the target that Juventus is targeting today.
"The pool of national fans has produced everything it could produce, so the club relies on international development, the only one that will keep pace with the top clubs," says Marco Bellinazzo, an Italian journalist specializing in the economy of sport.
When Andrea Agnelli took the helm in 2010, Juventus' turnover, excluding capital gains from transfers, was 156 million euros. Nine years later, it has more than tripled to 495 million.
"Over the last five years, Juventus has made giant strides and is now one of the top seven or eight clubs in Europe, but remains at a distance from the very first," said Bellinazzo.
For their part, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Manchester United are approaching one billion euros in turnover.
- the Ronaldo effect -
"If Juve is blocked in the Italian borders, it will be impossible to reach these levels.The Real and Barça are in a global market, also thanks to the Spanish language.The English clubs are also in a global market, through their own brands but also that of the Premier League, "commented the journalist of the daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
The new logo and the new jersey have been designed to create a brand less rooted in its territory but more recognizable and recognized in the Asian and American markets, where is the money.
It is the same logic that pushed the Piedmontese club to open offices in Hong Kong and, soon, in the United States. The "Old Lady" has also diversified, with a line of clothes or "concept bars Undici", in partnership with the Segafredo coffee brand.
Above all, this strategy was boosted in July 2018 by the enormous sporting and marketing blow of the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo.
According to a recent study by the Gazzetta dello Sport, the arrival of the five-fold Ballon d'Or has directly boosted revenues by almost 60 million euros in the 2018-19 season.
Ticket revenues increased from EUR 60 million to EUR 74 million, as Juve was able to increase its prices considerably without any loss of affluence. Jerseys sales doubled and the arrival of the Portuguese precipitated the renegotiation of the Adidas contract, from 23 to more than 50 million EUR per year.
- in the red -
The daily pink pages also evokes an explosion of the number of foreign fans and followers on social networks, in the wake of CR7 and its digital army (386 million subscribers).
Result, despite a monstrous salary (EUR 31 million annual), the cost of Ronaldo "has somehow already been amortized," Judge Marco Bellinazzo.
Yet, the accounts are in the red, with a loss of 39 million at June 30, more than doubled from the previous year. And the last transfer window, when the club vainly tried to separate from Mandzukic, Can or Rugani, showed that the balance was fragile.
Worrying? Not really. "Juve has behind it Exor (the holding company of the Agnelli family, ed), which has a turnover of 140 billion euros, so we can completely exclude any problem of continuity," says Bellinazzo.
Juventus nevertheless proceeded last month to a capital increase of 300 million euros, to fill cash needs, to remain offensive on the transfer window and to finance its international development plan.
And at the end of the line, Agnelli has one last card, his renewed Champions League project, which would guarantee more European matches for the participants. "Such a tournament would allow Juve to develop its international income rather than stagnant Italian income," confirms Bellinazzo.
© 2019 AFP