football overcame the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to growth

European club football has finally overcome all the consequences of the pandemic and returned to growth. This conclusion is contained in the annual report of Football Finance compiled by Deloitte. It claims that in the 2021/22 season, the income of participants in the continental football market reached €29.5 billion, which is an absolute record. The engines of growth, as usual, were leagues from the countries of the big football five – England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. They accounted for more than €17 billion in total revenue. Of these, almost €6.5 billion were earned by the teams of the English Premier League (EPL), which strengthened their already indisputable status as the most successful football project in history. At the same time, the gap between the Premier League and its competitors will only grow in the future.

Deloitte presented the annual report on the financial condition of European football, in which she stated that the industry in the 2021/22 season had finally overcome all the consequences of the restrictions that existed during the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to a growth trajectory.

It is noted that the total income generated by participants in the European football market (this includes not only the clubs themselves, but also national federations, the Union of European Football Associations and the International Football Federation) amounted to €29.5 billion.

This is almost €1.9 billion more than in the 2020/21 season and €4.3 billion more than in the 2019/20 season. It should be noted that it was during these seasons that the pandemic occurred, the clubs practically lost their income from ticket sales, were forced to return money to television companies for not holding matches, etc. So it would be more correct to compare the indicators of the reporting period with the last pre-pandemic season- 2018/19, which has so far been considered a record. So they are better – in the 2018/19 season, the European football market generated only €28.9 billion in revenue.

The lion’s share of income, as always, came from clubs playing in the top divisions of the big five countries. Teams from England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France collectively earned €17.2bn. This is also a record, and it is €200m more than the figure achieved in the aforementioned 2018/19 season.

Such a noticeable growth is explained by the fact that spectators returned to the stadiums. Moreover, for example, in the Premier League, attendance generally became a record. On average, 39,950 people came to the games (the second highest figure after Germany, where the matches were attended by an average of 42,837 fans), and the average arena occupancy reached 98% (92% in the Bundesliga). Not surprisingly, more teams in the league are considering investing in bigger stadiums. On average, clubs from the top leagues received 12% of revenue from matchday (the total cost of a spectator to visit a stadium). If we talk about absolute values, then, for example, Premier League teams collected €901 million from viewers. But in the 2019/20 season, matchday revenues were purely formal and barely exceeded €35 ​​million in the entire Premier League.

In addition, according to Deloitte, the so-called commercial revenues (proceeds from sponsorship contracts, sales of goods with club symbols, etc.) of the Big Five clubs grew by 17% at once and reached €6.3 billion.

This made it possible to compensate for the decrease in revenues from the sale of broadcasting rights. They fell by 12% to €8.9 billion. However, there is no need to draw alarming conclusions: the decrease was mainly caused by the aforementioned refunds from clubs for crumpled pandemic seasons. Moreover, it was not about the physical transfer of money to the accounts of television companies, but about providing them with a compensatory discount for the next seasons.

However, the Deloitte report also notes potentially problematic factors. There is nothing new here, we are talking about the outstripping growth of the wages of football players. €12.3 billion was spent on them, which is immediately 15% more than in the 2018/19 season. The comparison with the 2019/20 season is irrelevant, since at that time many clubs were able to negotiate with the players on a temporary reduction in salaries. Yes, in Premier League clubs spent on player contracts 67% of income (anything below 75% is considered acceptable), in Spanish league — 73%, in Bundesliga, traditionally the most financially disciplined, – only 59%. Do not fit within the recommended parameters Italian Serie A (83%) and French Ligue 1 (87%). If we compare the leagues by the absolute cost of the players’ salaries, it becomes clear why everyone is so eager to play in England. Premier League teams, on average, allocated €215 million for the maintenance of football players (Manchester United has the largest payroll – almost €480 million). Further behind is La Liga (€119m), followed by the Bundesliga (€103m), Serie A (€98m) and Ligue 1 (€88m).

Almost double lead of the Premier League in terms of average salaries quite correlates with the ratio of income of the English and other leagues. So, for the reporting period:

1. Premier League clubs earned a record €6.442 billion, almost €599 million more than in the 2018/19 season,
2. La Liga with an indicator of €3.277 billion,
3. Bundesliga (€3.149 billion)
4. Series A (€2.350 billion)
5. Ligue 1 (€2.026 billion).

As you can see, the Premier League earns more than the Spanish and German leagues combined. And according to Deloitte, this gap will not decrease in the coming years. The report provides a forecast for league revenue through 2024 and predicts that the Premier League will receive €6.662bn, while La Liga and Bundesliga revenues will not exceed €3.45bn.

Alexander Petrov