German clubs in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga have lost more than a billion euros in total since the start of the Covid pandemic. The League (DFL) announced it when presenting its annual report on Friday.
For the 2020-2021 season, ‘the overall revenue of the two championships fell by more than 750 million euros compared to the last season before the pandemic (2018/19): from 4.8 to 4.05 billion euros’, says the president of the DFL Donata Hopfen in her introduction. “The drop in turnover at the end of the first two seasons affected by Covid-19, 2019/20 and 2020/21, exceeds one billion euros”, she specifies.
This shortfall comes mainly from matches played behind closed doors or in front of a reduced audience, while all German stadiums have not yet regained their full capacity, two years after the start of the pandemic. In 2020/21, box office receipts have thus shrunk by around 95% compared to the last pre-pandemic season, from around 650 million euros in 2018/19 to only 35.5 million euros the season. last.
The situation has had a very strong impact on employment, with the number of professional football employees falling by 50%, to 26,183 employees against 52,786 in 2019/20. Indirect jobs (essentially match day services) fell by 80%. These figures relate to the 36 German clubs that are members of the DFL, 18 in the first division and 18 in the second.
Fees also lower
In addition, media rights and marketing revenues also fell last season. “We are facing an unprecedented situation,” said Ms. Hopfen. ‘The era of self-evident growth seems over’.
This observation, she suggests, could have repercussions on the development of German football, and possibly on the method of financing clubs, in a country which still prohibits a single investor from seizing the controlling majority. within a club.
/ ATS