Blatter the profit of joy for FIFA

Business of Sport Daire Whelan

If you were in any doubt about the power and clout that football has globally, then one look at FIFA's 2003 Annual Report, released just last week, will put you straight.

Sepp Blatter's four-year plan, from 2003 to 2006, culminating with the World Cup in Germany, is on course to extend FIFA's riches and influence.

Year one, aka 2003, has seen FIFA back in the black, posting profits of $111 million. It is a remarkable turn-around for the finances of the organisation from just the previous year, when they were $11m in debt, after a 12-month period during which ISL and Kirch had declared insolvency, AXA terminated the cancellation insurance for that summer's World Cup, post-9/11, and Blatter faced allegations of mismanagement surrounding his re-election campaign - he was later cleared by a Swiss court and won damages for defamation.

In his speech to the FIFA delegates in the wake of the return to profit, Blatter declared:

"In short, we can proudly say that FIFA's financial credibility has been restored in full . . . FIFA can now embark on the challenges ahead brimming with confidence.

"We, the world football family, can celebrate the FIFA Centennial safe in the knowledge that we have built upon our forefathers' legacy, and done everything in our power to guarantee a prosperous and successful future."

Weighty stuff indeed. The sense of history and legacy is important as a selling point for Blatter - he calls the association members the "football family" - and the financial report was interspersed with black-and-white photos of World Cup matches dating back to the 1930s.

But it is to the future that FIFA are looking with great expectation and licking of lips as they have projected an increase in revenue to $750m by 2006 with further profits of over $200m in that same year.

Just as Stalin reviewed his five-year plans for production success, so too Blatter will be looking back on his own four-year cycle and as he retires in 2007, he will be able to point to $1.7 billion in revenues generated for the period 2003-2006.

Borrowing Blatter's phraseology, it will be an impressive legacy to leave and will put FIFA firmly at the forefront in terms of global sporting power.

Also in his speech, Blatter noted:

"All existing TV and marketing contracts for the FIFA World Cup expire at the end of 2006. At that time, there will be no options to honour and no obligations of any other kind to restrict our decisions.

"FIFA will be in the enviable position of being able to market the World Cup rights in whatever way it wishes . . . FIFA are not bound by any options or other commitments. Our current strategic plans do not envisage a global package, but separate contracts for each individual territory.

"It is possible that we will negotiate directly with broadcasters in some instances, yet conclude contracts with specialist agencies in others.

"Whatever happens, we intend to retain complete control over the rights and ensure that they are marketed in a way that best meet FIFA's requirements."

Placing FIFA in such a position of negotiation for the 2010 World Cup will be making TV companies nervous as World Cup rights are among the few products that have seen their value increase in a depressed market.

TV needs the spectacle of the World Cup but so too, FIFA needs TV as 60 per cent of the revenue they generated in 2003 came from television rights.

Finally, from the 2003 FIFA Financial Report, it is worth noting that by the time of the first World Cup in 1930, FIFA were dependent for their very existence on their member associations, as they accounted for 85 per cent of their revenue.

Nowadays, the boot is on the other foot and it is FIFA who are firmly in control of the world game with only one per cent of revenue coming from football associations, while 74 per cent of FIFA's spending goes to its members.

The "football family" has become a clear success but it is its patriarch who truly pulls the strings.

 StockWatch £1.02

- Arsenal sponsors O2 see their price drop in the last few weeks from £1.07

GoFigure

500 Swiss Francs

- Total Revenue for FIFA at their first congress in 1907

United hardly losing shirts over net deals

With the news last week that Manchester United players will no longer be signing memorabilia, football fans everywhere (and ABUs especially) saw this as just another sign of the crass commercialisation of the world's richest club.

Had football become so centred on profit and loss players wouldn't accede to the most basic duty a footballer can perform, namely give a treasured signature to a besotted kid?

Not at all, say Manchester United plc, the club was rather trying to tackle the phenomenon of professional autograph hunters selling signed memorabilia on the net, with the club claiming dealers were paying children to spend the day outside United's training ground collecting signatures.

As a result, the players will refuse to sign footballs, shirts, posters, portraits or anything that could constitute a collector's item.

"Sadly it's the genuine autograph hunters who are made to suffer," said a spokesman. "We regret that fact - and the players regret it more than anyone - but clearly action was necessary to stop concerted and organised dealers."

So just how valuable are these pieces of memorabilia that are leading to kids being taken advantage of and elaborate scams being devised? Here is what this column found on offer on Ebay:

- signed Nicky Butt card, £1.99

- signed Louis Saha shinpads, £15

- signed Ryan Giggs jersey, £92

Hardly the stuff to bring down an empire now is it?

While we're on the subject of autographs, to the Irish players who moaned at having to stand around at the Carlisle Grounds the other week signing all those autographs, some of them are for sale on eBay for as little as 99p and they're still taking offers.

Hootie blows out ads again

This weekend's US Masters - TV's highest rating golf event - is, for the second year in a row, ad-free, at the behest of Augusta chairman Hootie Johnson.

Last year, following Martha Burk's campaign against the club's no-women-members policy, Johnson opted to save TV sponsors Coca-Cola, IBM and Citigroup embarrassment by dropping their commercials for the duration of the tournament.

It seems the decision went down well with fans, as final-round coverage on CBS Sports attracted 34.5 million viewers, the third-highest for a Masters Sunday - and that as unknown Mike Weir became the first Canadian to win a major,

Augusta National would not say how much money it lost last year or will drop this year, but $19m in charity donations over the last six years would suggest the club's coffers are okay.

ListentoLombardi

"Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can."