The recent Deloitte annual Money League report shows how important the commercial segment of the revenue of top clubs is becoming. An average of 41 per cent of the revenues generated by the top 20 clubs came from commercial sources.
Match day sales now account for only a fifth of revenues. At AC Milan, it is as low as one tenth. Even broadcast revenues are now behind commercial revenues, their share falling from 42 per cent to 37 per cent.
The recent Deloitte annual Money League report shows how important the commercial segment of the revenue of top clubs is becoming. An average of 41 per cent of the revenues generated by the top 20 clubs came from commercial sources.
Match day sales now account for only a fifth of revenues. At AC Milan, it is as low as one tenth. Even broadcast revenues are now behind commercial revenues, their share falling from 42 per cent to 37 per cent.
Some clubs have done remarkably well. In two years Paris Saint-Germain has seen its commercial revenue increase from £31.3m to £211m. That’s more than Manchester United, with its sophisticated marketing operation that is always setting up new partnership deals across the world. It’s bigger than Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
Paris Saint-Germain are fortunate to have landed such revenues as otherwise it would be impossible for them to meet Uefa’s financial fair play criteria. In particular a new deal will see the Qatar Tourism Authority pay them a reported £570m over four years. Some might see that as a ‘related party deal’ given that PSG is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority.
Uefa president Michael Platini has been ready to denounce excessive, benefactor-funded spending, but seems to be a little more reluctant to address the Qataris a PSG.
Whatever Uefa’s original intentions, top clubs were able to change the agenda so that it ignored debt and focused on the link between spending and income. This enabled them to ring fence the existing elite and stop any more gate crashers on the party like Manchester City and PSG.
Clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City have imposed some restraints on their spending since the rules were introduced. According to Uefa, revenue growth is outpacing wage growth for the first time since data was collected in 2006.