The analysis gives some insight into a club’s internal governance structures ranging from ownership models, boards of directors and representation in international football organisations. In financial terms, the report underlines the relevance of European competition revenues and the income from the transfer market, all in connection with a club’s bottom line.
Some of the highlights from the report include:
- Internazionale Milano has the youngest Board of Directors – 45 years is the average age – followed by Paris Saint Germain and Juventus. For all clubs in the study, the Board of Directors has an average age included between 45 and 57 years;
- Juventus has the highest women’s representation in the Board. On the contrary, half of the clubs do not have any women members on their Board of Directors;
- Barcelona, Bayern München, Juventus, Manchester United and PSG are the clubs that hold the most direct roles in organisations such as ECA, FIFA and UEFA;
- Across the last five seasons, the 12 clubs received a total of €2.9bn from UEFA competitions, an 81% increase compared to the value of €1.6bn registered during the previous five years. With €405.8m, Juventus is the club that received the highest individual amount, followed by Real Madrid and PSG;
- Atlético Madrid and Juventus were the clubs that were the most ‘dependent’ on European competition revenues. On average, nearly a quarter of their operating income over the last five years has come from UEFA;
- From the season 2013/2014, PSG received from UEFA an average amount that is more than the average domestic revenues of a club participating in the Ligue 1. In Italy, Juventus received almost the same amount from UEFA as the national average of all 19 domestic rivals;
- On aggregate, in 2017/2018 the 12 clubs recorded a net profit from player transfer activities of more than one billion euro, nearly double the amount of the previous year;
- With €406.7m over the past five seasons, Chelsea is the club that registered the highest net revenues from player transfer activities, followed by Barcelona and Liverpool;
- On aggregate, in 2017/2018 the 12 clubs recorded a net profit after tax of €328m. This turns into a total loss of nearly €420m, when considering the clubs’ operating result minus net profit from player transfer activities;
- With €181m and €157m respectively, Barcelona and Real Madrid recorded the highest aggregate profit after tax over the past three seasons, ahead of Liverpool and Bayern.
The full report can be downloaded HERE.