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Brand Finance: Milan ‘significantly behind’ European heavyweights in brand value

AC Milan, as you would imagine, have quite a strong brand value compared to the general market. However, it is worrying in football.

For a club like Milan, who have won 19 Scudetti and seven European titles, there is always going to be a strong brand. The Rossoneri colours are identifiable as their own, just as the white of Real Madrid or the Blaugrana of Barcelona.


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Of course, it is also seen with collaborations. Look at the projects between Off-White and the Diavolo, for example.

Weak brand in comparison

However, a report from Brand Finance, via Gazzetta dello Sport, states that the brand value is not as significant as other European heavyweights. In fact, Milan boast the lowest value of the Italian top three.

Juventus have a score of 85, Inter with 82 and then the Rossoneri, narrowly behind with 81. Juventus’ score, for what its worth, is down 13%, Inter’s is up 5%, whilst the Diavolo’s is stable. For this score, the calculation is that the Rossonero brand is valued near the €400 million mark. For reference, Real Madrid have a 95/100 brand score, worth €1.9 billion, whilst Barcelona follow with 94/100 and €1.7b.

Milan Offwhite

The valuation director of Brand Finance, Lorenzo Coruzzi, spoke about this too.

“Italian football is undergoing a profound transformation, both on and off the field. Serie A, one of Europe’s most prestigious leagues, stands out for its historic legacy, but faces a crucial challenge: it is the only one of Europe’s top five leagues without a football brand valued at more than €1 billion. This is a clear sign of the need to strengthen commercial competitiveness.

“Italy’s performance profoundly impacts the entire football ecosystem. The team’s failure to qualify for the World Cup and elimination in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 have dampened fan optimism.”

Tags AC Milan

26 Comments

  1. “Italian football is undergoing a profound transformation”

    Er, no, it isn’t. There’s no transformation. Other leagues transform, Serie A is left behind.

    1. Agreed.

      The transformation will only come from the clubs owning their own stadiums.
      And yes, Serie A is left behind and so is Gli Azzurri right now. Even though Inter have been in two CL finals lately.

    2. This.

      Carlo Gargenese on Italian Football Podcast lost his mind about this today on the Q&A show.

      Like @Boom Boom points out it isn’t just the marketing and sale of TV rights by the Liga either. Italian politics, culture etc have brought the modernization of infrastructure (stadiums, etc) to a halt.

      Southhampton was relegated from the Prem last year and got ~57m euros.

      As best I can tell, Napoli won something like ~24m euros for WINNING Serie A.

      We are getting crushed by our inability to market our game. We still don’t have a TV deal in India (1bn+ people) and last year we awarded it to some rando streamer that went bankrupt.

      That Milan and Napoli have been able to have the mercato’s they are speaks to ADL and Tare’s skill and connections.

      1. Are you joking? Milan have plenty of money. Were owned by someone who is one of the least wealthy owners in top flight European football lol. A club like Milan, Juve, Inter, Napoli should EASILY be spending $50mill per year on additions WITHOUT sales. And that is without UCL money factored in. If Milan went into the “red” by $50mill this summer, as in the spend $50mill MORE than they take back in sales than who will that hurt? Does it hurt you? Does it hurt the players? Does it hurt Serie A? They would not run afoul of FFP but going a measly $50mill in the negative so don’t give me FFP crap. That is NO WHERE NEAR what FIFA is worried about. So do you know who is hurt by Milan going $50mill OVER what they’ve taken back in sales this mercato? GERRY. That’s it, Gerry’s pocket book takes a beating. Now if Gerry cared about WINNING the way some other top European owners care than he would be willing to put up as much of his own money as FFP would allow him to. Unfortunately we don’t even know how broke Gerry actually is because he is hidden behind the assets that RED BIRD “manages”. Maybe his personal wealth is tied up somewhere in Red Birds $12billion in assets but who knows? I do know that he seems quite hesitant to lose money on Milan, and that is a HORRIBLE sign for supporters of this club.

    1. Means nothing when your best team in Italy gets dunked on 5-0 in a UCL final.
      Your Branding looks horrible.
      Just how many Trophies were won with those 7 European finals?

  2. Whatever brand we had is being eroded with cheap merch and ridiculous associations with baseball teams etc.
    We should be looking for a deal with McDonalds, where the Clown is king and people devour the sh1t they are served

    1. Milan brand, Italian teams brands and Italian football in general have been on a downfall since the calciopoli. It will literally be at least 12 years before Italy can qualify for another world cup. Is that thanks to Milan association with baseball teams and McDonald’s?
      If you read the article, Juventus and Inter scores are not much better than Milan’s.

  3. When things are good it’s thanks to the Americans, when things are bad it’s because of Italy 🤣 Meanwhile it seems that success is needed for a football club to grow. Who knew?

    It’s not Offwhite that will change that. I never met people dressed like a high school quarterback in real life 🤣

    1. 😀 I wouldn’t want that jacket even if it was given to me for free but of mere curiosty I at some point checked what they cost and from what I recall they was far from cheap quite the contrary.

    2. Reposting this here b/c your take seems to completely ignore what those in charge have control of but do not execute effectively:

      Carlo Gargenese on Italian Football Podcast lost his mind about this today on the Q&A show.

      Like @Boom Boom points out it isn’t just the marketing and sale of TV rights by the Liga either. Italian politics, culture etc have brought the modernization of infrastructure (stadiums, etc) to a halt.

      Southhampton was relegated from the Prem last year and got ~57m euros.

      As best I can tell, Napoli won something like ~24m euros for WINNING Serie A.

      We are getting crushed by our inability to market our game. We still don’t have a TV deal in India (1bn+ people) and last year we awarded it to some rando streamer that went bankrupt.

      That Milan and Napoli have been able to have the mercato’s they are speaks to ADL and Tare’s skill and connections.

      What any of that _critical systemic failure_ have to do with foreigners? Those are all Italians in positions of power.

        1. A TV deal in a country of 1.4 billion people means nothing because all are poor.

          TIL others are right and you can be ignored. Guess you fooled me on that first comment.

          What an absolutely racist statement man. Seriously, pull your head out of your a$$. It’s dark in there.

        2. WRONG!
          i have been to Indian villages with populations of a few hundred & they have regional 7 a side tournaments with prize money & impressive trophies. the young generation are more inclined to watching live football than cricket also, there is no denying the poverty but more than half the population can afford to pay a few hundred rupees for live streaming football

        3. Now you can see this guy is a mo*on, as I’ve been saying for months. Racist whatever, but claiming a deal in a country that will top population for a long time is worthless? He is a re*ard.

  4. This is a profoundly sad and worrying situation. Serie A is inexorably dwarfing year after year over the last two decades, that’s the bitter truth.

    1. Sad to say…but to be honest this decline started with Calciopoli. They were warned that would have set us back two decades and it did from what precipitated from that event. The big names left and also the appeal. And it’s been fighting to stay relevant ever since. We’re now only realistically coming out of that. But Calciopoli started the destruction of the league.

  5. It’s that age old dilemma – the things that make Italy incredible are the exact same things that hold it back. The same applies to football.

    Do we lose the spirit of Calcio and everything that makes it unique to join the ever more depressing global football party, but maybe win stuff?

    Or do we keep sacred everything that makes it different and special, reject globalisation, but accept we will always lose top players and promising youngsters alike, and generally cease to matter outside the peninsula?

    I fell in love with Milan, and Calcio in the late 80’s and was lucky enough to be a season ticket holder in the early 2000’s, so my view is very romantic. The likely reality is that young Italians probably want the former – it’s already apparent to me that they are watching the Prem, whilst kids here in England aren’t watching Serie A.

    If the people in power are smart, they would leverage that history and everything that makes Calcio special as the ‘brand identity’ – build new but equally as unique and historically relevant stadia, encourage tiff’s invest far more into youth football and the national setup (yes, for women too).

  6. It because clubs don’t pay to retain their best assets. That is how you increase and maintain your value and reputation. The national team is no good because Italians don’t play in their league and the league is decrepit by comparison to other top 5 ones.

  7. Financial Fair Play and an inability to be successful without Billionaire owner support/bailouts. Italian football has been on the decline ever since.

  8. There are so many things wrong in Italian football it can’t grow realistically, first and foremost is stadiums no team can build one, Milan and inter need to leave san siro alone for good nothing can be done to much bureaucracy.

  9. Juventus would have been over 1B if they didn’t have recent footballing failures, they lost 250M in brand value in past 3 years.

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