The football market has grown by billions of euros

Club revenues from all European competitions rose by 13 percent to 24.6 billion euros. The reason: broadcasting rights

Two days ago, the Economic Daily reported that Slovak top-division football clubs earned nearly 32 million euros last year. But now, the renowned auditing firm Deloitte has released a study outlining the revenues of all European clubs and national football associations. According to the report, the football industry across Europe reached a record income of 24.6 billion euros, representing a 13 percent year-on-year increase. The biggest contributor to this growth was lucrative broadcasting rights deals, especially in the wealthiest leagues in England, Germany, and Spain.

“This confirms the ongoing growth of football, most clearly visible in the so-called big five leagues. In addition to the three already mentioned, Italy and France are also part of that group,” said sports analyst and football agent Jozef Tokos for the Economic Daily.

The elite pulls away
If we were to combine the revenues of all Slovak clubs and the Slovak Football Association, the total would come to around 50 million euros. In comparison to the European football market as a whole, that makes up a negligible 0.20 percent. “It’s clear that the gap between the richest football countries and the poorer ones continues to widen. That trend is likely to persist in the coming years,” Tokos stated. This is also evident in how the overall income is distributed: clubs from the five wealthiest leagues took in 13.4 billion euros, or 54 percent of the total. One potential way to curb their growing dominance could be the merging of smaller national leagues. In the past, there have been attempts to form joint competitions in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Belgium, and there was even talk of a Czech-Slovak league. At present, however, such efforts have faded. “Any such ambitions would first need approval from UEFA. In the past, UEFA has taken a conservative stance on these types of plans. Still, it’s not out of the question that they could materialize in the future,” Tokos noted.

EURO was a success
UEFA itself has also ridden the wave of financial success. The decision to expand the European Championship from 16 to 24 teams turned out to be economically beneficial. EURO 2016 brought in 1.9 billion euros in revenue for UEFA, half a billion more than the previous edition held in Poland and Ukraine in 2012. “Revenue from the European Championships has doubled over the past twelve years. Broadcasting rights have played a major role in that,” states the Deloitte study. For context, during the 1996 tournament in England, ticket sales accounted for the largest share of income at 44 percent. Last year in France, that share had dropped to just 14 percent, while television rights generated 53 percent, or 1 billion euros.