European football continues to captivate audiences and investors worldwide. The latest UEFA Club Finance and Investment Landscape Report underscores this burgeoning interest, providing a comprehensive analysis of the continent’s football finance landscape.
UEFA’s Groundbreaking Report
UEFA’s newly formatted and redesigned Club Finance and Investment Landscape Report offers an authoritative, detailed, and comprehensive review of the European football finance landscape. The report indicates an unprecedented interest in European football, with attendance records being shattered across the continent.
Revenue Growth
According to the report, all revenue streams are rapidly growing, with total revenues for 2023 projected to rise at an unprecedented rate. The robust level of club acquisitions and investments from around the world continues to underscore the confidence that investors have in European football and its unique allure.
Club revenues for first-division teams hit a record level of just under €24bn in the 2022 financial year, despite some lingering aftereffects of the pandemic. Based on early club revenue submissions, revenues are expected to surpass €26bn in the 2023 financial year.
Fast-Paced Development
Despite the pandemic, European club football revenues have increased at a rate of over a billion euros a year from 2013 to 2023. This growth indicates an increase from €15bn to the projected €26bn.
Reflections from UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin highlighted the importance of open competitions, sporting excellence, and unity within the European football pyramid. He stressed the significance of revenue generated at the pinnacle of the football pyramid to sustain its base at the grassroots level and provide the necessary funding for its growth.
“European football’s success is built on open competitions, sporting excellence, and unity within the European football pyramid. It emerges from both on-field contests and healthy rivalry that goes well beyond the field of play and is based on sporting merit and solidarity, the very fundamentals of the game.”
Report Implications
The report also notes that club wages increased significantly across the pandemic despite the lost revenues and depressed transfer market during the 2020-2021 period. Wage levels were unsustainable in several leagues in 2022, absorbing 89% of revenue at French clubs, 88% at Belgian and Turkish clubs, and 83% at Italian clubs.
Andrea Traverso, UEFA’s Director of Financial Sustainability & Research, states in his introduction:
“However, there are signs that stakeholders’ cooperation and new regulations are already having an effect. Faced by strengthened incoming squad cost controls led by UEFA, there are strong signs in the latest figures that clubs are taking stock and trying to get their costs under control.”
Comprehensive Analysis
The revamped report analyses the finances of over 700 clubs, including KPI tables for all 55 countries. It provides the definitive picture of club finances as club football moves beyond the pandemic.
As President Čeferin concludes:
“This report charts a clear vision for the future – one of stability, strength, and an ongoing success story that must continue to belong to the many, not the few.”
To learn more, check out the full UEFA European Club Finance and Investment Landscape Report here.
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