THE BIG FIVE – MONEY LEAGUE
THE ROOF IS ON FIRE
England and Germany are the driving forces of growth in European professional football, where the “big five” leagues have now passed the magical revenue milestone of 10 billion euro. In fact, the “big five” generated a turnover of over 11 billion euro in 2013/14, which almost doubled the revenue they earned in 2003/04
BY KRISTIAN BOYE, TEAM TEKSTWERK Thierry Henry finished the Premier League season as the top scorer, with 30 goals. At the same time, he celebrated Arsenal’s unbeaten, championship-winning season. In Chelsea, Roman Abramovich bought his way into the team, spending 100 million pounds on players. That’s the way things were a little over a decade ago. At the end of the 2003/04 season, it already felt like an immense amount of money when the “big five” leagues in Europe reported a combined turnover of 6 billion euro. Now they have passed the 10 billion mark, with particularly explosive growth in England and similarly impressive growth in Germany. But the impact of the financial crisis can still be felt in Spain, Italy and France. This extraordinary rate of growth in international football is often met by remarks that the ceiling must now have been reached in terms of turnover, television rights deals and exorbitant purchases of players such as Gareth Bale, Neymar and James Rodriguez – or whoever else is hot
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property in the top leagues. But rather than hitting the ceiling, the clubs have set fire to it, causing the leagues’ growth to reach heights that may seem ridiculous to the average fan who just wants to see a good game of football. THIS GROWTH IS SUSTAINABLE Glancing at the turnover figures in the different leagues, it is not surprising that the Premier League has broken away from the pack. The world’s strongest football brand has a turnover worth more than the French Ligue 1 and the Italian Serie A’s combined, and its income grew by a staggering 29 percent from the 2012/13 to 2013/14 season. Germany’s Bundesliga followed with a solid 13 percent growth, whereas Liga BBVA and Serie A lagged well behind with growth rates of 2 and 0.7 percent respectively. Ligue 1 in France, however, has experienced an impressive growth of 15 percent in recent years, but much of this can be attributed to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Monaco’s huge
marketing agreements, which UEFA has closely monitored in accordance with its Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. PSG has now received a 60 million euro fine and a decision is pending on UEFA’s investigation into Monaco’s accounts. The 2013/14 accounts indicate their the FFP rules have had a positive influence on the two largest football leagues in particular, with the Premier League and Bundesliga clearly becoming more sustainable businesses. Consultancy firm Deloitte recently published a report on the 2013/14 season in England, which revealed surprisingly positive results. For the first time in 15 years, the Premier League’s clubs recorded a combined gross profit of 190 million pounds. Another important benchmark was the wage-toincome ratio. In 2012/13 England’s professional clubs spent 71 percent of their income on salaries, but this figure dropped to 58 percent in 2013/14. In Germany, however, the wage share is as low as 47 percent. Salaries from its football busi-