Football is huge internationally being the most popular sport in a majority of countries with the Premier League being televised in most countries. As a result, the top clubs accumulate huge amounts of global fans as they have the best players and experience the most success.
But how could one of the Premier League’s lesser clubs such as Brighton and Hove Albion build themselves as a brand and create more global appeal to replicate the commercial success of the ‘big six’? Brighton has begun to invest in talented footballers from all over the world operating a moneyball approach of taking punts on low-cost signings that could develop at the club.
Global investments
One of the main ways of building a global fanbase is to sign players from many different footballing nations. For example, Liverpool signed Mohamed Salah in 2017 and with that came immense support from his home nation, Egypt. This also becomes apparent when we look at the numbers.
ExpressVPN’s infographic shows what drives sports streaming in the United Kingdom, as five Premier League clubs dominate streaming searches, with Liverpool FC leading comfortably. Domestically it is almost impossible for lesser clubs to compete in terms of popularity. Beyond Liverpool the top Premier League clubs trail and as a unit they dominate stream searches.
Under former coach Graham Potter’s guidance many signings from all over the world have become key players even for their national teams; Brighton are likely to have a few Ecuadorians starring at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. These international stars are some of their nation’s top players and will undoubtedly impact Brighton commercially.
Ecuador v Japan coming up shortly… 😅👀 pic.twitter.com/LgIfyfRzJi
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) September 27, 2022
Brighton is beginning to gather interest from many different nations simply because they are generating international footballers. This winter they may also see their stars line up for the likes of Ghana, Argentina, Spain and Belgium.
The club operates a relatively inexpensive scouting department as they focus on the use of data to find emerging players in all areas of the world. Typically a fresh Premier League club would focus their recruitment on domestic-based players; Brighton has however initiated a bold approach since they were promoted to the peak of English football in 2017.
Commercial impacts
They have reaped the rewards on and off the pitch from this; they are a sustainable Premier League team and their commercial revenue has begun to increase which will allow them more freedom in the transfer market in future.
In recent years Brighton has reported annual losses but its turnover and income have consistently increased. The club had to endure losses to become a stable top-flight outfit while investing in stars of the future. Turnover increased 13.4% from £132.9 to £151.6 million from 2020 to 2021.
The club is certainly building larger revenue streams. Perhaps taking advantage of the foreign markets for the benefit of the club is beginning to take an effect commercially.
With the Premier League being widely available globally, international fans can track their compatriots that play for the South coast side from wherever they are in the world. Brighton are likely to quickly increase their global fanbase as Ecuadorians amongst many other fans opt to watch their national teams stars.
Loved to see Ecuador fans chanting Brighton 🇪🇨💙🤍
— Brightonian (@PursuitOfTruthB) September 24, 2022
Ecuador are a prime example of the off-field effects of Brighton’s strategy; a bottom-half Premier League team have a World Cup nation’s arguable best player and with that, it draws the interest of an entire nation to the club.
On a smaller scale, it represents the Argentinians that support Lionel Messi whichever club he goes to; or the same could be said for Portuguese fans and Cristiano Ronaldo. The two built Barcelona and Real Madrid’s brands immensely and Brighton is replicating this at a lower level with their young international stars.
