UEFA report: Europe top out of the pandemic. Not Serie A

We have come out of the pandemic, but unfortunately the effects will continue for a long time. Even in football. The Europe that counts – Premier, Liga and Bundesliga – is practically out of the swamp of empty stadiums, cut TV rights, sunken commercial. Italy doesn’t. And the fact that even France has failed to recover is not reassuring. The risk is that a top three-speed Europe is being created.

At the top is England, effectively a national Super League. So Spain and Germany, the only ones that somehow manage to keep up, although their global value (about 6 billion) is slightly higher than that of the Premier League (over 5.5). Finally Italy, followed by France. The “UEFA 2023 Benchmarking Report”, which we anticipate, offers a worrying picture of our football now at a crossroads: either it restarts at high speed, to shorten the distances, or it will be condemned to a subordinate economic-financial and sporting role. Money doesn’t give everything but it helps, as told by the last Italian Champions dated 2010.

7 billion lost

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If last year the global loss of the pandemic of 7 billion was an estimate, now there is the official figure: that is the figure. A bang. Tickets in stadiums practically zeroed (4.3 billion). Bad sponsors (1.3), TV rights (1) and UEFA prizes (0.4). Even here, however, Serie A (-15%) suffered more than the Premier, Bundesliga and Liga (all -13%). Only France (-18%) did worse. The overall deficit of the entire continent was one billion, but the tide has changed. The clubs that have presented their 2022 financial statements already propose a +4.1% on 2019: sponsors and commercials have grown by +13%; the UEFA awards balance the slightest drop in TV rights; ticketing is at 93% of pre-pandemic levels. 2023 could be the year of counter-overtaking.

Salaries +16%

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In short, the European movement has emerged from the crisis and the players have benefited, as always: salaries are up 16% compared to before the crisis. The agents know how to do it, the presidents will soon knock on Nyon to ask for limits that they otherwise cannot respect. All is not rosy: global net worth is $2 billion below its peak, but it continues to grow. Players’ contracts are longer (almost half last three years), loans are decreasing with the new Fifa rules. The market has restarted. The Premier dominates: its 39% of expenditure in the summer window and even 53% in January. The average price paid per player by the Premier League is 15.2 million, four times higher than Germany (2nd with 3.6 million). The Premier subsidizes the world and takes all the best: a cannibal tournament.

Italy: the deficit increases

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We haven’t been the most beautiful championship in the world for a long time and we have now lost the podium in terms of turnover. Italy earns 2.56 billion a year, less than half of the Premier League. TV rights are almost a quarter of those in England (1.1 against 3.9). A sinkhole. All rumors are still far from the years before the pandemic. Stadium receipts are down: in 2022, the top four clubs (Juve, Milan, Inter and Rome) recorded 29 to 38 million tickets, while, underlines UEFA, there are five European teams over 100 million. The TV rights data is also bad: the clubs that presented the 2022 budget show a -10% compared to the crisis period. UEFA cannot explain a paradox: despite the centralized sale, the ratio between who collects the most and the average value per club is 2.8, worse than when it was individual. In Europe it is 2.3 and in Premier 1.2. Only Spain, with 3.1 between Real and the average value, is worse. Inter earns 98 million TV rights, Liverpool 198: is seeing the Reds a double spectacle? The result is dramatic: our clubs record a loss (before taxes) of 720 million in 2020, 1.17 billion in 2021 and, according to the data of the 2022 financial statements (Milan, Fiorentina, Roma, Inter, Juve, Lazio and Napoli ) the data goes to grow.

Sponsors in 5th place

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Even worse sponsor and commercial: Serie A is fifth in Europe and the average value per club (32.6 million) is even lower than that of Russian clubs. We are not talking about the Germans (61.4 million) and the English (82 million). There’s just a small problem: salaries in 2022 (for top clubs) grew by 7% compared to pre-pandemic. It is true that in Germany (+10%), England and Spain (+145) they have increased the most, but we have the worst percentage of turnover: 81% go into payroll. “A clearly unsustainable level,” writes UEFA. And debt with banks (1.5 billion) is the 3rd in Europe. We are living beyond our means, as before, more than before. When, at least, we won. Everything sounds like an alarm: our heroes will understand…