TV propels Brazilian soccer league into world’s sixth-richest spot

The Brasileirão, the top tier of the professional football league system in Brazil, is now ranked number six in the world when it comes to revenue generation – with the television industry playing a pivotal role. A recent study published by consulting firm BDO RCS Independent Auditors put the Brazilian league immediately behind Europe's top-five most profitable national football competitions: The English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, Spain's La Liga, Italy's Calcio and Le Championnat of France. Unlike similar rankings, which usually include the valuation of football players, this one chose to omit such parameter as "the price of players varies, which distorts the results," according to BDO auditor Amir Somoggi. This left mainly revenue generated by TV rights, as well as stadium ticket sales and merchandising sales as the factors that were used to determine the ranking of the world's richest football leagues. Throughout 2011, the 25 main Brazilian football clubs had combined sales of US$860 million. This pipped Holland's league into seven. Analysts believe the Brasileirão could reach the fifth position by 2014, when – besides hosting the next World Cup – Brazil will displace the French league from its current standing. Sao Paulo-based Corinthians is at the moment the Brazilian football club that obtains the largest sums of cash from the sale of TV rights. With annual revenues of US$3.2 billion, the English Premier League leads the ranking of the world's most prosperous national soccer competitions. According to Somoggi, Brazil will highly likely continue to climb up the ladder given that, "while in Europe there are struggles to maintain budgets, Brazil's is expanding".