Chapter 850 - 18: Poised to Become the Most Valuable Club! Reshaping World Football’s Salary Structure Single-Handedly! Champions League Kicks Off

September 22, the day before Arsenal is set to take the Champions League stage this season.

Forbes released the 2012 rankings of the most valuable football clubs in the world, along with the athlete income rankings.

Sky Sports, which had previously speculated on Arsenal’s ranking in the Forbes list, quickly went live to provide UK fans with the latest information while discussing related topics.

"Sky Sports Flash News!"

A host sat upright in front of the camera, flipping through documents in hand and said: "Forbes officially released the world’s most valuable football club rankings today, let’s take a look at the performance of Premier League teams.

"Of course, the most important thing is to focus on how Arsenal, who have been in the limelight lately, performed in the rankings.

"We all understand that after winning several major championships last year, after Kroenke’s full acquisition began to invest, after the renewals of Mael and several other key players, Arsenal have been widely favored in the capital market.

"Their total team value has not only reached 665 million Euros, surpassing Bar?a to rank second in the world of football.

"The market value has also risen to 1.83 billion Pounds and shows a trend of continuous growth."

After introducing the previous information, the host picked up the remote control and pressed it, and the latest market value rankings quickly appeared on the large screen behind him.

Even before he spoke, the audience had already clearly seen the latest rankings.

First: Real Madrid, 2.56 billion Pounds

Second: Arsenal, 2.39 billion Pounds

Third: Manchester United, 2.24 billion Pounds

Fourth: Barcelona, 2.21 billion Pounds

Surpassing Manchester United and Barcelona, ranked second!

This is Arsenal’s current ranking, they have undoubtedly achieved a historic breakthrough!

The host’s face lit up with a smile, knowing that Arsenal fans seeing this news at the moment would be extremely excited, "In past years, Real Madrid and Manchester United always took turns sitting on the throne of number one.

"But looking at it from this year, a new team is about to launch a final challenge for number one.

"It’s not Barcelona or Bayern Munich, but Arsenal!

"This is actually not in line with common sense, Arsenal doesn’t have the top-level historical honors and attention like Real Madrid, nor does it have the largest global fanbase of 690 million like Manchester United.

"In fact, in recent years, they are quite far from Barcelona, and the number of championships from the Dream Three era may be something they can’t pursue for many years.

"But all of this happened just like that!

"By nearly reaching the Premier League’s historical record of 49 unbeaten matches and three titles in a year, and by the attention and commercial value held by Mael, they became the team second only to Real Madrid!"

The host then brought up a pie chart detailing the main sources of Arsenal’s endorsements.

"To analyze such a high commercial value, we must look at several major moves by Arsenal this year, starting with one of their main sources of income, commercial endorsements.

"After Kroenke took charge of the team, the team just won two major championships, and star player Mael performed outstandingly in the European Cup.

"These things gave him a lot of confidence, allowing him to negotiate new sponsorship deals with companies like Puma and Emirates Airline.

"Compared to 2010, Arsenal’s sponsorship fees have grown by 62% this year! It’s no wonder that its market value has risen from an initial 1.231 billion Pounds to the current 2.39 billion Pounds.

"Besides, their jerseys and related product sales have also seen a huge increase, they..."

The host explained the reasons for Arsenal’s market value increase from various angles, finally shifting the topic, "Of course, we can’t deny that the rise in Arsenal’s market value is due to three people.

"First, Arsene Wenger, who, with over ten years of perseverance, brought this club back to greatness and built a solid base with many supporters worldwide.

"Second, Leon Mael, whose talent allowed the club to fulfill its potential, offering a brighter future, and avoiding what could have been a tragic ending for Wenger,

"Third, Kroenke, his contributions this year can’t be erased, as his enormous investments made this club more competitive and more favored by the market."

"..."

After that, BBC also launched a program to report in detail on the 2012 Forbes athlete income rankings.

They first rolled out the rankings and total income at the bottom of the screen, before preparing to start the program.

"First, Mayweather, Boxing, 85 million Pounds! Second, Pacquiao, Boxing, 62.5 million Pounds! Third, Tiger Woods, Golf, 59.4 million Pounds!"

As the top three rankings continued to roll, many puzzled ’?’ comments flashed across the screen.

Mayweather and Pacquiao, although world-renowned boxing stars with high earnings, rarely make it into the Forbes top ten list, especially not in the top three.

This is because the sport does not have very stable high salaries and consistently high-value events, those unfamiliar with it might hear about boxing news at most 1-2 times a year, often about some heavyweight showdown.

But the money is there... right in these globally eye-catching heavyweight showdowns!

Such fighters’ appearance fees for highly anticipated matches are over 10 million Pounds, and with the improving boxing market, they might even break through 100 million Pounds/US Dollars in the future.

Mayweather and Pacquiao, with the former having no endorsements in 2012 and the latter only earning 3 million Pounds from endorsements, nevertheless occupied the top two spots on the Forbes income list.