How much revenue did football clubs lose during 2020?

Almost everyone around the world took some kind of financial hit in 2020 as the planet was turned upside down and made unimaginable impacts to the daily lives of many.

Much of the world’s population was out of work, whether it be temporary or permanently, whilst the rest of the world seemingly stopped appearing to spin.

Of course, professional sports was also impacted in a variety of ways, as they were unable to continue to compete as those new to betting on football would have found out, whilst they were also left without fans, therefore losing out on a key revenue strand that would usually bring millions, if not billions, into the team.

£4.5 billion in revenue was lost in 2020

Football clubs were one such business that were impacted greatly, with having been estimated that the top football leagues with Europe missed out on a combined revenue of around £4.5 billion.

It is understood that if Europe’s top five leagues were to cancel each of the remaining games of the 20/21 season, they would have stood to lose a combined £3.6 billion; which would have likely included a rebate of some significant amount that they would have had to owe back to broadcasters as they would have been unable to fulfil the contracts that they have in place.

However, each of the football leagues in Europe decided to return to action as soon as they could, but the damage financially had already been done, as many of the clubs continued to leak vast amounts of money.

As highlighted in the report that was undertaken by KPMG, six of the continents biggest leagues had lost a combined £4.5 billion in operating revenues, largely from matchday experiences and tickets that would have been sold if they could.

Six champions hit badly financially in 2020

The report also highlighted that each of the six champions of those leagues based in Spain, England, France, Italy, Portugal and Germany were impacted badly as each saw their fall in income be rather alarming. Naturally, this is perhaps why many of the biggest clubs in the continent made audacious plans to form the European Super League.

Despite having been able to claim the Bundesliga and the biggest prize in European club football – the UEFA Champions League – FC Bayern Munich still lost around £16.28 million in revenue, although the German club are one of the savviest when it comes to money as they were able to record a profit of £5.25 million.

Liverpool might have been the FIFA Club World Cup Champions last year, as well as win the lucrative Premier League title, but Jurgen Klopp’s side were not saved from the impact that was felt financially, as they saw their revenue shrink by £42.35 million, whilst also perhaps being highlighted by the fact that their transfer business was rather restrained by all accounts, as well.

Florentino Perez has been very vocal about the money that has been lost over the last year, with the Real Madrid president going on to claim that the European Super League would save football clubs from death. However, whilst they saw a decline of 8% in operating revenue, last year’s La Liga champions still managed to record a profit of £266.9 million.

Juventus suffered a decline of 13% as Italy was badly impacted, whilst Paris Saint-Germain also saw a decline of 15% – which is thought to be worth £84.88 million – despite having reached the UEFA Champions League final for the very first time.

Conclusion

As can be seen from the data, many of the biggest clubs in Europe were all hit. Although the data does only highlight the champions of each of the respective biggest leagues in the continent, it is only easy to infer that the financial impact will have been greater for some of the other clubs in those leagues, as well.