Are Liverpool F.C still bigger than Manchester City as a global brand?

For decades the battle between Manchester and Merseyside has raged. Throughout the 80's Liverpool F.C dominated football with European Titles, F.A Cup wins and league titles. Liverpool became a global brand and put English football on the map in Europe.

However at the turn of the century a new era began, Manchester United signed Eric Cantona and brought charisma to football that had not yet been seen. Suddenly Manchester United started to dominate and with a crop of youngsters that included, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, David Beckham and Nicky Butt it would be years until anybody came close to challenging Manchester United.

It was only Jack Walkers millions and Roman Abramovich multi-millions that challenged Manchester United. While Blackburn, Chelsea and Arsenal challenged Manchester United for titles Liverpool struggled to make an impact.

Liverpool did however manage to win the Champions League and attract players such as Fernando Torres. In countries like Spain Liverpool are still considered as being one of the biggest clubs in the world. In recent years struggles with ownerships has meant that Liverpool have failed to qualify for the Champions League and been over taken by Manchester United for the number of league titles won.

The Emergence of Manchester City

Liverpool are now faced with a bigger threat as not only are Manchester United challenging them for silverware, multi-billionaires Manchester City are now challenging them but are City now bigger than Liverpool?

Manchester City have recently won their first piece of silverware and look to be challenging in all 4 competitions, whilst Liverpool are unlikely to finish in the top 4, being denied European football again.

However, it seems like Liverpool remain a dominant global brand. Throughout the United Kingdom young children have Liverpool Duvet Covers and posters on their walls but not Manchester City. Only time will tell if Manchester City will catch up to Liverpool but despite seasons without silverware and no league title since 90-91 it seems like Liverpool still have a dominance.

Global Brand a Myth?

The renaming of the City of Manchester Stadium to the Eithad Stadium is a concious effort to make a mark on the Premier League for the untapped Dubai market and with Manchester United floating Manchester United in Singapore it seems like dominating in the United Kingdom is not enough.

Many experts however believe the global brand to be a myth. However much football clubs try to break markets the success will always remain locally. A big indicator of this is within business is Coca Cola. Despite being the leading brand in America they still fall behind to Pepsi in India which indicates theirs no such thing as a 'global brand.'