Total revenues across European soccer’s 55 domestic leagues rose by €2.9 billion ($3.1 billion) in the 2023 financial year, a new report has found.
Overall income across those competitions came to €26.8 billion that year, up from €23.9 billion in 2022, with revenue for FY2024 expected to grow beyond €29 billion (based on early club revenue submissions).
Go deeper with GlobalData
This has been laid out in The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report carried out by soccer’s governing body on the continent, UEFA, with the report also finding that these revenues have grown by an average of €1.1 billion annually over the last 15 years.
Revenues were highest, in terms of a specific country, in England’s 20-team Premier League (EPL), reaching €7.1 billion in 2023 (up 11% year-on-year), with these figures dwarfing those of the league’s closest competitors.
The next highest revenue figure was the €3.7 billion brought in by the 20 clubs in Spain’s LaLiga, and in third came Germany’s Bundesliga, with €3.6 billion split between that competition’s 18 sides.
Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1 were the only other leagues in which clubs’ total revenues came to over €1 billion.
Of those top five leagues, annual revenue increased year-on-year by the biggest percentage (23%) in Italy, followed by France (19%) and then Germany (12%).
Overall, revenues across the continent’s top-division clubs in 2023 were 17% higher than before the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.
In terms of the factors behind clubs’ revenue growing significantly over the last 15 years, the income sector with the highest percentage of growth was UEFA’s financial contribution to clubs, which has grown by 367% since 2009. Behind that comes player transfers, at 179%, and then sponsorship and commercial, at 166%.
For the 2023 continent-wide figures, commercial revenue brought in the most money – €8.9 billion. This is up from €7.7 billion in 2022, and the report indicates a further 12% rise in commercial revenue is expected in 2024.
The EPL secured €2.2 billion worth of revenue in this sector, significantly higher than any other league – the Bundesliga was next best, bringing in €1.4 billion.
In terms of the clubs’ primary commercial partners, the report found that in nine of the top 20 leagues (for commercial revenue), 'betting and gambling' was the most common specific industry for a club’s shirt sponsor.
Notably, whereas all of the other 19 leagues had a high percentage of domestic brands as club sponsors, for the EPL this figure stood at just 10%.
TV revenues (outside UEFA contributions), meanwhile, came to €8.2 billion – with €3.2 billion coming from the EPL alone. LaLiga, the Bundesliga, and Serie A, were the only other competitions to secure over €1 billion in broadcast revenue. The 2022 TV revenue figure was €8 billion, showing slower growth (3%) in this sector than in others.
The report does forecast a 7.2% growth in TV revenues for 2024, however, based on early reporting figures and some deals having been struck in advance.
The UEFA contribution, meanwhile, came to €2.9 billion across the various domestic leagues. This is unchanged from the 2021 and 2022 figures, but is forecast to rise by €900 million in 2025.
Overall, seven sides from the EPL split €475 million of UEFA revenue between them in FY2023, meaning an average of €67 million – the highest such figure on the continent.
For ticketing and gate revenue, which brought in €4 billion in FY2023, it is notable that general crowd levels were up 6% that year from pre-pandemic levels, and that eight clubs that year generated over €100 million from gate revenue.
Once again, the EPL secured more revenue in this sector than any other European league – €995 million. The rest of the top five leagues in this category was made up of – in order – LaLiga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1.
UEFA is predicting general 11% growth in gate revenues in 2024.
In terms of revenues categorized as ‘other’, this sector generated €2.7 billion in 2023, up from €2.2 billion the prior year, and is expected to grow by 14% in 2024.
The report identified Spanish giants (and 2022-23 UEFA Champions League winners) Real Madrid as the individual club to have secured far and away the most revenue that season – they brought in €1.07 billion, the only team to breach the €1 billion barrier.
In every revenue category they came out on top, with the commercial category their single biggest revenue source, responsible for €458 million of revenue.
The rest of the top five was made up of (in descending order) England’s Manchester City, France’s Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), England’s Manchester United, and Germany’s Bayern Munich.
The average revenue for a side in the top 20 was €567 million.
Turning to operating profits and losses in 2024, Manchester United secured the highest operating profit – €144 million – while PSG made the largest loss, of €62 million.
Five of the 10 clubs with the biggest 2024 operating profits come from the EPL – Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, and Manchester City.
Five of the 10 clubs with the biggest 2024 operating profits come from the EPL – Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, and Manchester City.
However, overall, EPL clubs lost €877 million (pre-tax) between them in 2023, with 16 of the 20 sides reporting pre-tax losses. The average EPL club loss came to €49.3 million.
Across clubs’ operating expenses, the report identified an aggregate wage cost across all teams in 2023 of €18 billion, and predicts growth of 6.5% in this department for 2024.
Of the €18 billion, €4.7 billion came from the EPL, almost double the amount provided by the next biggest contributor, LaLiga.
The individual team who spent the most on wages was PSG, who paid out €658 million. They were followed – in order – by Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Liverpool.
Of the top 20 clubs in terms of paying wages, only four saw total wages fall year-on-year.
