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Is the 2021/2022 Season Set to Be a Record Year?

The 'big five' European football leagues were hit by a €3.7 billion revenue drop due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Football clubs were forced to adapt their business models, which may serve for a positive impact in the long term.

Football clubs can hope to emerge from the crippling impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the long term, despite new figures from financial firm Deloitte showing a €3.7 billion revenue drop across Europe. Deloitte's annual Football Finance report, published on July 29, reveals that the combined football market in the 'big five' European leagues shrank by 13 percent to €25.2 billion in the 2019/20 season.

As initially reported by Deloitte in June, the Premier League's clubs saw their revenue fall from a record £5.2 billion in 2018/19 to £4.5 billion in 2019/20, marking a decline in total earnings for the first time. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw football suspended from March 2020 until the Premier League's 'Project Restart' behind closed doors in June, resulted in record combined losses for clubs. Additionally, the English Football League (EFL) reported a 13 percent revenue decrease to £943 million in the 2019/20 season across the three levels below the Premier League.

If things continue as they are once everything is back to normal, the clubs, after an extremely tough financial situation over the past 18 months, could emerge from this in a much stronger position for the future. This is because they have managed to break wage inflation.

Dan Jones of Deloitte's sports business group believes that the way football was rapidly forced to adapt its business model over the past 18 months could have a lasting positive impact. "For the upcoming 2021/2022 season, it looks like there will be little to no restrictions [for supporters in the stadium], so it's likely to be a record year," he said. Jones believes that a collective "belt-tightening" by clubs wanting to limit rising wage costs against a severe drop in revenue could lead to a much more stable environment. He stated, "If things continue as they are once everything is back to normal, the clubs, after an extremely tough financial situation over the past 18 months, could emerge from this in a much stronger position for the future. This is because they have managed to break wage inflation." The clubs have so far shown that if they can build on that, they can make themselves much more sustainable than they probably appeared 18 months ago. Support and passion are clearly present for clubs at all levels in this country, so if that means we take a more sustainable position from now on, that would be a good outcome.

Sources: Deloitte