Liverpool earn more from shirt sales and merchandise than any other Premier League club, with the true value of their kit deal with Nike revealed by UEFA.
When Liverpool agreed a deal for Nike to take over from New Balance as their kit supplier, the club shook hands on a lower base rate than their previous terms.
Their contract with the American manufacturer was reported to earn them a minimum of £30 million a season – down from £45 million under New Balance – but with a significant percentage of royalties on sales.
That includes kits and merchandise, which in a new study from UEFA, is shown to have paid off handsomely.
UEFA’s ‘European Club Finance and Investment Landscape’ report reveals that Liverpool earned £113.1 million from kit and merchandise sales in 2022/23.
(Graphic via UEFA)
That is behind only Barcelona (£153.25m), Real Madrid (£132.7m) and Bayern Munich (£125.9m) across Europe, and more than Man United (£111.3m) in fifth.
There is a sharp drop of 34 percent from the top five to sixth-placed Paris Saint-Germain (£83.1m), who are in a similar ballpark to the next Premier League clubs in Arsenal (£76.2m) and Chelsea (£74.5).
Unsurprisingly, despite filing alleged record revenues last year, Man City made the 11th-most in kit and merchandise sales (£62.5m) – just over half that of Liverpool.
UEFA’s figures suggest that Liverpool’s royalty payments from Nike are worth over £80 million, with it reported that their agreement earns 20 percent of all proceeds.
It is unclear, however, whether this includes any other payouts from areas such as sponsorships and advertising.
The club actually earned less from kit and merchandise sales in 2022/23 than in the previous campaign, with a drop of around one percent from £117.3 million in 2021/22.
Liverpool are nearing the end of their fourth season in partnership with Nike, with their current deal believed to expire at the end of next season.
