Italian football clubs lost €3,6bn to COVID-19 pandemic – Report

<p>The Italian Football Federation has said professional football clubs in the country lost €3.6 billion between 2019 and 2022 due to the restrictions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>, <p>According to the 2023 edition of ReportCalcio published by the Italian Football Federation, the top three divisions lost an average of €1.2 billion per year during the COVID-19 period, while their cumulative losses were €412 million in 2018-19, before the pandemic.</p>, <p>Supersport.com reports that losses for the 2021-22 season alone, the last considered for this report, amounted to €1.4 billion, “the worst ever recorded in the 15 years that this annual report has been published,” it said.</p>, <p>It was learnt that the indebtedness of Italian professional football reached €5.6 billion in 2021-22, a 4.4 per cent increase over one year.</p>, <p>The authors of the report welcomed the joint candidacy of Italy and Turkey to host Euro 2032 as “a unique opportunity” to increase ticketing revenue by modernising a fleet of notoriously outdated stadiums,” supersport.com reports.</p>, <p>Ticketing revenue for all Italian professional football was €254 million in 2021-22, compared to 226 million a year earlier, but still far from the 341 million of 2018-19, the last season before the pandemic.</p>, <p>By comparison, Manchester United alone generated €126 million in ticketing revenue in 2021-22, according to the Deloitte report.</p>