The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has released an annual report reflecting the financial health of European clubs. It reports how European teams are coping with the impact of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. UEFA estimates the total losses from them at more than € 8 billion.
On Friday, UEFA released an annual report reflecting the financial condition of the organization. This is the first full-fledged report since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the fact that almost all tournaments in the spring-summer of 2020 were suspended (and the European Championship was postponed to 2021) for a long time. According to UEFA calculations, the losses of European clubs from the pandemic restrictions exceeded € 8 billion. € 2.7 billion were lost by the teams from sponsors. Another € 1.4 billion were losses from the revision of contracts for the sale of broadcasting rights. Losses from the ban on spectators from visiting stadiums are close to € 4 billion. UEFA believes that if current trends continue, club losses could increase even more. “The entire football ecosystem has been affected by the pandemic. The answer to this lies in a concerted effort to elevate the entire football pyramid. Solidarity, not the pursuit of personal interests, must prevail, ”said UEFA President Aleksandr Čeferin.
The report focuses quite a bit on the history of the failed creation of the European Super League (ESL). The tournament was supposed to unite 12 of the strongest clubs in Europe. They even signed legally binding agreements. But after fan protests, all six English clubs participating in the ESL had their signatures withdrawn, leading to the collapse of the project. The report notes that the “so-called Super League” allegedly intended to pay clubs and leagues outside of it, in solidarity, about € 10 billion over the next 23 years. UEFA shows that the solidarity contributions in the current scheme are higher than those offered by the organizers ESL. Between 2018 and 2021, UEFA donated € 559 million to national leagues, federations and clubs. Of this, € 140 million went to reward teams that did not qualify for the Champions League group stage, € 130 million went to the development of youth football, € 269 million went to the support of the Europa League participants, and more than € 20 million were donations to the national federations. The report also indicates that contributions will increase significantly in the new cycle, calculated for the period 2021-2024: “Without going into details, we can say that, even with the average forecast for UEFA revenue growth (5% per annum), for 23 years UEFA will pay leagues and federations more than € 28 billion. This is significantly more than the so-called ESL offered. “
Lack of revenue by clubs, according to the UEFA report, affected the transfer market. In the summer of 2020, they spent 39% less on amplification than in the summer of 2019. And if we talk about the winter transfer window, then the drop turned out to be even more serious – 56% in January 2021 versus January 2020. The market, as usual, was supported by English clubs. They again became the main buyers of the players in the world. During the reporting period, English clubs spent on strengthening € 1.8 billion, which is € 600 million more than Italian football could afford. It is noteworthy that even the clubs of the second division of English football – The Championship – spent € 400 million on new players. As for the Russian Premier League (RPL), its position is quite stable. In terms of club income, the RPL lags far behind the “big five” leagues (English clubs received € 5.9 billion during the reporting period, and the French ones who closed the top 5 – € 1.9 billion), but nevertheless remains in sixth place in the world with an indicator of € 876 million. Another thing is that these incomes have practically nothing to do with the teams’ own earnings and are due solely to the generosity of sponsors and owners. Suffice it to say that the RPL became the worst among the 15 leagues in terms of match day income (receipts from visits by spectators to the stadium). This figure is only 7%. An even smaller role in the structure of the RPL teams’ income is played by proceeds from the sale of rights to television broadcasts (about 1.7 billion rubles a year against, for example, £ 1.7 billion in the English league).
However, according to UEFA, the aforementioned Anglocentricity may soon lose its relevance. It is noted that the decision to leave the UK from the European Union will soon begin to influence the processes of hiring players in European football, depriving citizens of its member countries of automatically obtaining the right to work in the UK. But this, most likely, is a question of a rather distant future.
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