Deloitte Sport Business Group, an advisory group for the sports business market, has released five key findings for football finance in 2023 showing that the Premier League remains the most attractive in terms of revenue.
Here are the five key findings from the report:
European football recorded a 7 percent revenue growth:
The European football market grew 7 percent to €29.5 billion over the 2021/22 season, due to record matchday and commercial revenues.
Led by the ‘big five’ leagues (English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, and French Ligue 1 ), the improvement of financial performance across all European leagues resulted in a 7 percent growth in revenue terms of the European football market.
Revenue in the big five European leagues grew by 10 percent to €17.2 billion performing the pre-pandemic era of €17 billion in 2018/2019 driven by €815m growth in commercial revenues across that period. Aggregate commercial revenue grew by 17 percent to 6.3 billion euros, buoyed by the trend in sponsorship interest towards premium sports properties with global reach, notably the Premier League.
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In contrast, broadcast revenues declined by 12 percent to 8.9 billion euros, largely resulting from the reversal of inflated 2020/21 revenues caused by deferrals from the previous COVID-19 impact season. Looking forward, the 2022/2023 season is forecast to see the big five leagues generate a record level of €18.2 billion in aggregate revenues.
The Premier League entrench itself as the market leader
The Premier League continued to entrench itself as the market leader, with growth in the English top tier outpacing the rest of Europe’s ’big five leagues, as both matchday and commercial revenues reached an all-time high. The Premier League reported a 12 percent rise in overall revenues in the 2021/22 season, culminating in a record aggregate revenue of £5.5 billion.
The group also expects in the coming months that the Premier League will extend this dominant position due to the commencement of new domestic and international broadcast deals in the 2020 to 23 season, as well as the continuing commercial appeal of its member clubs.
It was also reported that in the 2021/22 season, polarization grew between the Premier League and the rest of the big five. The gap also increased between clubs and leagues at the domestic level despite the three English Football League divisions reporting total revenue of over €1 billion.
Crossroads in regulatory changes
It was reported by the Deloitte sport business group that as polarization is a growing challenge, there are increasing calls to seek ways to promote strong competitions and help protect and build fan interest and value for clubs, leagues, and governing bodies alike.
Working together with the key stakeholders UEFA is now considering developing supplementary requirements to financial regulations for clubs in UEFA competitions, which includes the prospect of an absolute cap in respect of a club’s spending on players.
In England, a new financial regulator is laying Legal Lines to bind every man’s club to financial sustainability.
What’s clear is it will be essential that any additional regulation and the impact of the regulator is appropriate to the scale of the challenge, but also reflects the capacity of the clubs within the system to suitably comply.
Commencement of a new broadcast deal in Women’s Super League
Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs reported combined revenues of 30 million pounds in the 2021/22 season, up from 20 million in the previous financial year. The commencement of a new broadcast deal in the 2021/22 season, which was the largest broadcast deal of any professional women’s league, representing a reported £8 million/per year led to significant uplift in broadcast distributions, the WSL and Women’s Championship clubs.
Matchday revenue throughout the league accounted for about 10 percent of WSL club combined revenues in the 2021/20 season with average league attendance of 1933. Growth is expected in this area with matchday revenues rising significantly in the next financial year following the nearly 200 percent increase in average WSL match attendance in the 2022/ 23 season.
Finding a balance
According to the group, every league faces new challenges brought by increased competition, regulation, and the strain of a challenging macroeconomic climate. They said that one certainty is that fans, investors, and commercial partners will continue to be gripped by football, and in a time of both economic and social division, clubs and leagues will play a key role in drawing people from different backgrounds and ideologies together.
A huge range of organisations around the world is now invested in the success of clubs and leagues. both on and off the pitch and the result is that balancing acts are required as investors, owners, and governments all seek success.
