Europe's top football clubs face 2b euros revenue hit from pandemic

Bengaluru, India

EUROPE'S elite football clubs are expected to miss out on over 2 billion euros (S$3.2 billion) in revenue by the end of the 2020-21 season due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Deloitte's Football Money League.

The report published on Tuesday said the figure includes amounts missed in the 2019/20 season when the top 20 highest-earning clubs in Europe earned 8.2 billion euros of combined revenue, which was down 12 per cent on the previous season. That drop in income of 1.1 billion euros was primarily down to the deferral of broadcast revenue into the financial year ending in 2021, with all the major leagues brought to a standstill in March last year due to the pandemic.

Matchday revenue likely to remain close to zero

Overall, the top 20 clubs in Europe saw an average revenue decline of 55 million euros compared with the previous year. Only two, FC Zenit from Russia and England's Everton, posted an increase.

With the majority of games being played without spectators since June, the matchday revenue for top European clubs is likely to remain close to zero until the end of the 2020/21 season in May. "Matchday operations are a cornerstone of a club's business model and help drive other revenue-generating activity," said Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte. "The final size of the financial impact of the pandemic on football will depend, in no small part, on the timing and scale of fans' return."

The Money League standings for 2019-20 remained broadly consistent with previous years as Barcelona held on to the top spot with an annual revenue of 715.1 million euros. The Spanish club, however, suffered the second largest revenue fall among the clubs featuring on the list, having delivered a record-breaking year in 2018/19 when they became the first football club to break the 800 million euros revenue barrier. Their arch-rivals Real Madrid reported an 8 per cent increase in commercial income to retain second spot in the rankings (714.9 million euros), while the reigning Champions League winners Bayern Munich from Germany moved up to third (634.1 million euros) following a treble-winning campaign.

Manchester United remained the top-earning English team, even as its 19 per cent revenue drop pushed it down one spot from last year to fourth place in the league table. Sales were also hurt by the team's failure to qualify for last season's Champions League.

Some of the top-ranked clubs are investigating other options for finance. Barcelona is considering inviting external investors to buy equity in a specially created company. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG