Blues climb to fourth in global replica shirt sales

Chelsea Football Club have sold an average of 910,000 replica shirts each year between 2007/08 and 2011/12, rising to fourth overall on the global list of shirt sales, according to sportingintelligence.com.

We’re the most significant climbers in the list since the survey was last taken two years ago as we’ve surpassed both Bayern Munich and Liverpool, we were previously joint-second with the pair for adidas shirt sales. The 2010 results can be viewed here. The Champions League triumph has definitely helped boost Chelsea’s sales as well as the signing of globally recognised players such as Fernando Torres and Juan Mata.

Below is a graphic that shows the best selling football shirts of Nike and adidas respectively…

What’s surprising is how little shirts are actually sold. It’s often thought that Europe’s elite sell millions of shirt a year, but only three clubs actually sell over a million in a year. Most of the profit would generally go to the manufacturer of the shirt but the revenue that can be generated for the club is still significant and the more shirts you sell the more valuable you are to the manufacturer. Also, it’s another example of the rise and rise of Chelsea as a global name.

Source: http://www.sportingintelligence.com