The specialized firm Vysyble has published a study dealing with the 2018-2019 season.
The cumulative deficit of the clubs in the English Premier League, the most powerful football championship in the world financially speaking, reached 600 million pounds (726 million euros) last season, according to a study published on Tuesday by the specialist cabinet Vysyble. .
The 20 clubs of the elite nevertheless recorded a record cumulative turnover of 5.15 billion pounds over the 2018/2019 season. But the worst is undoubtedly to come for the English clubs which will be hard hit by the crisis linked to the epidemic of Covid-19, even if they manage to finish their season. For example, they will have to reimburse 330 million pounds (400 million) to holders of broadcasting rights due to the delay in the season.
The Covid-19 epidemic is not the cause of football’s financial slump. It’s just an accelerator
Roger Bell, director of Vysyble
Losses of “match day” receipts – ticket office, box office – could amount to an additional 136 million pounds (164 million). “The Covid-19 epidemic is not the cause of the financial doldrums of football,” said however the director of Vysyble, Roger Bell, quoted in the press release. “It is only the accelerator of what our data has very clearly and rightly identified as a much longer term problem.” “The 2018/2019 figures are (…) symptomatic of deep problems linked to (the) economic model” of English football, he added.
Among these problems, Vysyble cites an exaggerated dependence on television rights, too high salary costs in relation to income and an inability to correctly identify and anticipate financial developments. The payroll of Premier League clubs would thus reach £ 3.12 billion (3.78 billion), or more than 60% of their turnover on average, but for half of PL clubs this ratio exceeds 70 % recommended as maximum by UEFA.
