Premier League and Bundesliga have had to refund €530 million to broadcasters, reveals Andrea Agnelli

The financial impact of the coronavirus has been well documented over the last six months or so with many countries struggling to keep up with the loss of money. However, the same has happened to football clubs across the world with them also struggling to cope with a significant loss of income affecting everyone. That combined with the lack of matchday income has caused even more problems alongside broadcast fees and the valuation of the transfer market dropping.

So much so that in his address to the European Club Association (ECA), Juventus president Andrea Agnelli revealed that clubs could lose more money than “entire confederations”. The ECA chairman was stark about the future and confirmed that the financial impact of the lockdown, plus playing behind closed doors has also had an effect on UEFA’s finances. He reported that UEFA’s club competitions could see a drop in income of about €575 million although that wasn’t confirmed by European football’s governing body.

“This is going to be dramatic for all of us, which will turn out to be potentially a cash crisis for most of the clubs and we will have to be very careful in how we manage this season and next. You have seen very important rebates for the broadcasters both at domestic level at international level,” Agnelli said, reported the Times.

“We have seen the £330 million rebate in the Premier League and of about €200 million in the Bundesliga domestic rights. We are in the process of finalising the accounts with Uefa with a reduction of around €575 million for international club competitions. That is all money which is not going to be distributed.”

Reports, over the last few months, have indicated that the transfer market would drop drastically with players’ values going in the same direction. That has caused a knock-on effect for clubs not only in the lower divisions but also in the more elite divisions. Agnelli confirmed that he believes the world will see the transfer market drop by “20 to 30 per cent” in value but also the pandemic could affect the renewal of sponsorship deals.

“The vast majority of us will bear deep scars from this crisis. It is going to be difficult to imagine we are going to see the same values of the sponsors coming in when we renew our current deals with them, whether it be shirt sponsors or secondary sponsors. There are estimates which say we are going to see the shrinking of . . . the value of the transfer market of 20 to 30 per cent and that is evidently less money circulating.

“I have the fear that some of the big clubs will probably suffer losses that are bigger than federations or confederations. Some of the biggest clubs will lose more than entire confederations across the world,” he added.