JUST IN: Finally, Coronavirus redefines European football

Football globally has brought a multifaceted effect to mankind. While it has successfully served as a tool to unite the world, it has also helped to boost the global economy aside playing a larger form of entertainment worldwide. Football like most of other sporting activities has become a massive recession-proof business generating billions of euros in profit across Europe.

Amazingly, the last decades have witnessed a tremendous growth of revenue of European football clubs arising from the upwelling in television rights values for both local and international competitions. Credit goes to majority of the clubs that have successfully boosted an increased GDP growth of their respective countries, while staying immune to the broader market conditions.

Sadly, the coronavirus outbreak has unfortunately changed the narratives, leaving the largest European football leagues to face substantial losses. With a potential €1.28bn loss, the statistic data reveals that the English Premier League (EPL) is expected to suffer the most substantial financial hit among Europe’s leagues. More than 60% of that amount or €800m comes as a result of lost broadcasting revenue. Lost commercial sales could amount to €300m, followed by a €180m drop in matchday profit.

The Spanish Football League like the EPL is not spared in this financial loss crisis as the La Liga is forecast to withstand the second-largest financial hit, losing around €970m due to coronavirus outbreak.

The Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and the French Ligue 1 follow with a potential €790m, €700m and €400m loss, respectively. As with the English Premier League, broadcasting rights are also expected to cause the biggest financial hit in these leagues.

UEFA called for the suspension of all European football matches due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The lockdown emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic has already left a huge impact on the sports industry, causing thousands of sports games, competitions and professional leagues to be cancelled or postponed. European football is no exception, with cancelled matches, empty stadiums and end-of-season battles left in limbo.

Regrettably, leading European clubs are bound to individually suffer an extended financial crisis arising from losses on players transfers.

National Daily gathered from the claim by the Deloitte Football Money League 2020 that the top 20 clubs generated combined revenue of €9.3 bn, or 11% more in 2018/2019 season compared to the previous season. It is pertinent to note that players’ transfers made a significant contribution to that amount.

Deplorably, with some players’ contracts running out at the end of the season and still no decision about continuing the matches, many transfers will be held up, renegotiated or called off.

It is revealed that individual clubs stands to suffer financial woes if no further matches are to be played this season and no contracts extended past the end of June.

Manchester City for instance stands to lose €412m of player transfer value. FC Barcelona ranks second on this list with a €366m potential loss. Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Paris St-Germain follow with €353m, €350m and €302m losses, respectively. Statistics show that in this situation, ten of the most-affected European football clubs stand to lose over €3bn of their player’s transfer value.

However, the football governing bodies have made series of attempts to manage and balance the situation with little or no success yet. National Daily can recall that earlier this month, UEFA suspended Europe’s most prestigious competitions, the Champions League and Europa League, with 40 matches remaining. The same decision was made for the Euro 2020 qualifying playoffs, with the finals moved from this summer to next year.

Similarly, FIFA has recently banned all football activities while also extending the current season with an attempt to accommodate players’ contract extension.

Meanwhile, the above measures no doubt are expected to produce a costly financial hit to European football leagues, with combined losses reaching up to €4.1bn, according to data gathered by LearnBonds.