German soccer’s DFL body has confirmed the financial figures from its 2024-25 campaign, headlined by record collective revenue of of €6.33 billion ($7.51 billion) across its 36 clubs (18 top-tier and 18 second-tier).
That figure is up 7.9% on the of €5.87 billion figure the league reported from the 2023-24 season, powered by the top-flight Bundesliga, which accounted for of €5.12 billion of the overall figure, while the secondary 2. Bundesliga surpassed of €1 billion in total revenue for the first time.
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Of that €5.12 billion total figure from the Bundesliga, €1.7 billion (33.24%) came from media rights revenue, which remained the primary driver of league revenues, while other commercial streams, including sponsorship (22.37%), matchday revenue (11.69%), and merchandizing (5.57%), also played a major role.
Indeed, sponsorship revenue rose by €128.1 million year-on-year and exceeded €1 billion overall for only the third time, illustrating the increasing importance that high-value advertising inventory plays for elite soccer teams, as it almost entirely covered the €132.2 million year-on-year drop in transfer market sales revenue across the league.
In all, 13 top-flight clubs ended the campaign in post-tax profit (compared to nine in 2023-24), and as a league the collective profit totalled €242.1 million, another Bundesliga record, while three Bundesliga sides (Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and VFB Stuttgart) all featured in the top 20 of Deloitte’s annual Football Money League, indicating that they were among the highest revenue generators in Europe that season.
Speaking on the results, DFL co-chief executives Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel commented: “The DFL’s task is to positively and sustainably shape the framework conditions in which the clubs operate both sportingly and economically. We are most convincing in these areas when our rationally managed clubs can be seen as success models.
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By GlobalData“The DFL Economic Report for the 2024-25 season sends very positive signals in this regard. This also applies on the expenditure side, where the share of payroll costs for players and coaches in the Bundesliga is still significantly lower in comparison to other European leagues.
They added: “[The report] clearly shows that the existential crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has now been overcome and clubs are competitive in their various competitions and act to a very large extent rationally with their finances.”
Lenz and Merkel will be at the head of a newly restricted DFL in 2026, with the body set to reorganize its corporate structure, centralizing domestic and international media rights, commercial partnerships, and other business activities under a new wholly-owned subsidiary.
While the DFL parent company (DFL GmbH) will continue to manage the top-level organizational functions of the league and its constituent clubs, the new subsidiary will encompass all media rights and digital coverage rights negotiations, commercial partnership deals, and marketing agreements.
The new unit will be led by Merkel, while Lenz will maintain a focus on DFL GmbH.
