Deloitte study
Europe’s football market after Corona low on sales high
Europe’s football market has shown itself to be surprisingly economically resilient during Corona. photo
© Nick Potts/PA Wire/dpa
Corona is forgotten, Europe’s football is growing again. According to a study, sales are on record course. The Bundesliga is also doing well. But according to Deloitte experts, there is room for improvement.
Europe’s football market has shown surprising economic resilience during Corona and is back on record sales after the end of the pandemic.
The “Big Five” leagues in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France have also come out of the economic dip well and have reached an all-time high in terms of total revenues. This emerges from the 32nd edition of the “Annual Review of Football Finance” published by the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte in London. The figures are based on the 2021/22 season.
Accordingly, the total turnover on the European market rose by seven percent compared to the previous season from 27.6 billion to 29.5 billion euros. Transfer proceeds are not taken into account when collecting the data. The sales development in the five top leagues Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 is similar to that in the overall European market. Sales rose by ten percent from 15.6 billion (2020/21) to the previous high of 17.2 billion euros. This also exceeded the level from the pre-pandemic period.
Premier League clearly ahead in sales ranking
“These figures show that European football has come through the pandemic resiliently. After the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions, the continued high demand from fans across Europe led to sharply increasing matchday revenues,” said Stefan Ludwig, partner and head of Sport Business group at Deloitte.
This is also evident in the Bundesliga for the recently concluded 2022/23 season. In this, the Bundesliga stadiums had the highest occupancy rate in Europe at 92 percent. “This is due in particular to the strong bond between German clubs and their fans,” said Ludwig.
In the turnover ranking, however, the English Premier League is clearly ahead with 6.4 billion euros (+12 percent). In second place is the Spanish La Liga (+11 percent) with 3.3 billion euros, just ahead of the Bundesliga (+5 percent) with 3.1 billion euros. Of the five major leagues, only the Bundesliga and Premier League made profits. The English elite class came to 542 million euros in 2021/22, the Bundesliga increased its profit from 62 million euros to 227 million euros.
Potential for improvement in the Bundesliga
“One of the Bundesliga’s unique selling points is its longstanding focus on financial sustainability,” said Kim Lachmann, Director in Deloitte’s Sport Business Group. This is reflected in the low personnel expense ratio compared to other European countries. Apart from the 2020/21 season, it has never been higher than 59 percent in the last ten years. “In this way, it was always possible to achieve a positive operating result even during the pandemic,” said Lachmann.
According to the study, the Bundesliga also has potential for improvement in global marketing. The German elite league (approx. 230 million euros) derives significantly less from the sale of international media rights than the Premier League (approx. 1.6 billion euros) and La Liga (approx. 897 million euros).