Coming out of the FIFA World Cup, merchandising and process excellence will be football’s next big thing.
Clubs will need to become fluent in retail strategy and superior merchandising. They will need to think like the best apparel retailers in the world.
And it’s not just because interest from the global event will spill over into the Premier League, MLS, La Liga, Bundesliga or women’s soccer.
Here’s why.
New Growth Avenues Needed
Let’s start with the epicenter of football: Europe.
Research from Deloitte and UEFA’s annual reports points to a clear picture. Broadcast revenue has largely stopped growing. The Premier League is the exception, buoyed by anticipated growth in international rights. The usual commercial levers like stadium naming rights and shirt fronts are flat, and gambling money is being pulled entirely.
Meanwhile, the conversation about evolving the physical space in and around stadiums is getting louder. That becomes a discussion about mixed-use retail: storefronts, restaurants, hospitality and other fixtures, all a means to drive matchday revenue and fan engagement.
At the same time, UEFA’s club data shows kit and merchandising revenue hitting record levels across Europe’s top clubs, now 82% above pre-pandemic levels. The telling number is the split beneath that headline: merchandising revenue grew 20% in 2025 against 13% for kit manufacturer deals. The year before, the gap was wider still, at 26% versus 6%.
Stands to reason that nailing the merchandising side of the equation could prove valuable.
Moving Up A Rung
The top of the top clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Liverpool, PSG and the like, are already doing this work. They have the brand, they have the dollars, and so they have the capability.
Liverpool just opened a store in Bali, their third in Indonesia, plus a location on Oxford Street in London.
PSG has fashion collections with the Jordan Brand and multiple storefronts, including one on 5th Avenue in New York operated by Fanatics/LIDS.
But mid-tier clubs will probably get the most value from doubling down on merchandising excellence. Take Newcastle, whose merchandising revenue jumped 219% after switching to Adidas, bringing retail ops in-house, and (probably the catalyst for all of it) breaking a 70-year trophy drought with their 2025 Carabao Cup win.
There’s an added benefit. European clubs don’t have a conventional salary cap like the NFL. Instead they have a squad cost ratio that ties spending on salaries to earnings, and UEFA rules let a club spend up to 70% of its revenue on player wages. So for mid-pack clubs, there’s extra incentive to master merchandising.
Clear Opportunity. Common Mistakes.
From our perspective, clubs are already well-positioned to master merchandising.
They have:
- A hero product to anchor the assortment: the kits.
- A common thread to unite it: the logo and color palette.
- Powerful marketing: look at Arsenal’s “Clean Kits Don’t Make History” campaign.
But operating like retailers also exposes clubs to common retail mistakes:
- A disconnect between strategy and execution
- An out-of-control SKU count
- Misalignment between marketing and merchandising
- Unplanned markdowns, excess inventory and so on
And because this is pro sports, those mistakes draw outsized attention.
Which brings me to my final point.
For The Kit Makers
To finish, a special mention for Nike, Adidas and Puma.
And a message for them: process innovation is your ally.
Nike is the one getting a yellow card here, for stockouts of its USMNT and Erling Haaland jerseys, but the likely causes and fixes apply broadly.
This is another place to talk about the value of a multi-track calendar, fast-track and chase lanes for replenishment, avoiding “hindsighting” in forecasting, scenario planning around game locations, access to the right data and so on.
Sports is tricky enough, and a once-in-four-years event can generate demand that surprises even Nike and Adidas. But I’ve watched enough Euros, Champions League tournaments and World Cups to know there’s always a breakout underdog every time.
The goal isn’t to be perfect or exact, because that isn’t possible here. But between the extremes of “too much” and “too little” product sits a middle with a range of acceptable outcomes.
Process innovation is exactly the tool to open up that range.
Fun fact: we wrote a book on process innovation. I’ll send a copy or two down to Beaverton, on the house.
We have plenty in stock.
