Premier League facing a £1.2bn hit
DOUBTS have been raised over whether the Premier League are insured for the £762million they would owe Sky and BT if the season is not completed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senior officials in the game do not believe that the Premier League or other major European leagues in Italy, Spain or Germany are covered against potentially crippling financial losses.
The gargantuan sum would be because of a breach in contract terms agreed for domestic and international television rights. The Premier League would not comment on the potential losses they face, but the head of Germany’s Bundesliga believes that no major European league is covered.
DFL chief executive Christian Seifert said: ‘No league has insurance against pandemics. Leagues have insurance to cover cancelled matches and some clubs have tried to insure against a pandemic but the insurance payments would have been impossibly high.’
Premier League sides have received their full allocation of money for the season and some are now keen to play games behind closed doors to ensure that fixtures are fulfilled so they can keep their broadcast revenue.
A lot of teams are banking on the broadcast revenue to help them with their own outgoings, mainly players’ wages.
Sports sponsorship analyst Dr Peter Rohlmann believes the total losses for the Premier League and the 20 clubs combined could reach £1.2billion if the season is abandoned.
Rohlmann said: ‘This figure would be truly disastrous. It includes missing gate receipts, hospitality, lost sponsorship money, bonuses, catering and merchandise, as well as the outstanding television money.’
The losses would, however, fall to an estimated £170m if the Premier League season was able to be completed behind closed doors in ‘ghost games’.
According to Rohlmann, the losses would come from ticketing and match-day revenues, but obligations to broadcast companies and sponsors would be fulfilled.
Seifert said: ‘Nobody is a fan of matches behind closed doors but they may be the only way to keep clubs in business.
‘Without income from television, sponsorship and gate receipts we can only survive for a short period. Ghost games will be the only way to survive in the short term.’
Rohlmann added: ‘It is the same situation for all European football leagues. Given the much smaller loss of match-day revenue alone for the remaining games, ghost games is a solution that can be described as a lesser evil.’
Rohlmann’s research also estimated that coronavirus could cost European football a staggering £4.5bn if the season is not completed.
The Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 face estimated combined losses of £3.6bn.
UEFA could lose £565m due to Euro 2020 rescheduled to next year, plus the loss of the Champions League and Europa League, should these competitions also fall by the wayside.
The Premier League have already stated that their competition will not resume until April 30 at the earliest but that now looks extremely unlikely and another meeting is due to take place next week.