Deloitte study
Europe’s football leagues increase sales to record levels after the Corona crisis
Chelsea’s Kai Havertz (right) in a duel with Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konaté: Both professionals have played in the Bundesliga, Havertz at Leverkusen and Konaté at RB Leipzig.
© Frank Augstein / DPA
European football has finally survived the Corona crisis: the leagues are increasing their sales considerably, as a study by the accounting firm Deloitte shows. The Premier League remains the industry leader.
The hard days are over, now business is booming again: the European football market has left the corona pandemic behind economically and is again on record sales. The “Big Five” leagues in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France have also all peaked in total revenue. This is from the 32nd edition of the “Annual Review of Football Finance” out, which the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte published on Thursday morning 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.
Football: Only Premier League and Bundesliga make a profit
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.
In the sales ranking, the English Premier League is further 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.