UEFA hail top clubs in Europe over massive €600m profit

IN a record result for European soccer, top-tier clubs combined to make a first-time profit of €600m last year, with spending on player transfers included.

UEFA research – involving 711 clubs’ financial accounts ending in 2017 – showed they turned around a €300m loss the previous year, European soccer’s governing body said Sunday.

The clubs’ total revenue of €20.1bn extended a trend of annual rises at around 10pc.

UEFA said 27 of 54 top-tier divisions in its member countries were profitable. That’s up from eight in 2011 when UEFA began monitoring accounts of all clubs qualifying to enter the Champions League and Europa League.

Healthier

“Thanks to Financial Fair Play, European football is healthier than ever before,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a statement.

The combined profit was made despite many millions of euros leaving the European soccer system as clubs bought players from outside the continent.

UEFA said the operating profit of all clubs – before player transfers and financing were taken into account – was a collective €1.4bn.

Booming values of broadcasting rights have largely driven the rising revenues, including deals made around the world for the Champions League and the popularity of the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga.

UEFA noted that 18 of 20 Premier League clubs were profitable for their financial year ending June 2017, with €638m total increase in revenue from television.

Though perceived as a high-salary league, UEFA said the English top division had wages under tighter control. Clubs paid players 56pc of their total revenue in 2017 compared to 71pc four years earlier.