KPMG recently released ‘Football club’s valuation: The European elite’, a report providing an indication of the value of the most prominent European football clubs.
“Our analysis of Europe’s 32 leading football clubs highlights the changing economic landscape of football. While football clubs are among some of the world’s most instantly recognised brands, with truly global fan bases, their Enterprise Value when measured in a similar way to any other business, is relatively small.” Commented Andrea Sartori, KPMG’s Global Head of Sports and the report’s author.
KPMG’s research found that English clubs top the report in terms of Enterprise Value (EV) per country with a combined total value in excess of EUR 10 billion. English clubs accounted for approximately 40% of the aggregate value of the 32 clubs valued.
“Thanks to the deal signed by the English Premier League at the beginning of 2015 the difference in terms of broadcasting revenues among the leading European leagues and the Premier League has widened significantly, despite the booming price of domestic broadcasting rights across other parts of Europe.”
Spanish teams, who have won all of Europe’s major club competitions for the past three years, follow suit with approximately EUR 6.6 billion of EV, buoyed by the two giants, Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona, which together represent 85% of the Spanish pie and 21% of the total. Spain is the only country represented by two clubs whose enterprise value exceeds EUR 2 billion each.
Germany had only 3 clubs valued amongst Europe’s top 32 with a combined value in excess of EUR 3.5 billion.
Italian teams today play a less prominent role both on and off the pitch. FC Internazionale Milano were the last Italian club to lift the UEFA Champions League back in 2010, and since then only Juventus FC last year have been able to reach the final. Although Italy has the highest number of represented clubs (7) together with England, the overall enterprise value of the Italian teams is 70% lower than the English ones (EUR 3.1 billion vs. EUR 10.2 billion). Juventus FC, with an EV almost approaching EUR 1 billion, are the only Italian club appearing in the Top 10.
Paris Saint-Germain FC from the French Ligue 1, were assessed as the 10th most valuable club in the ranking, with a value of EUR 843 million.
Only six clubs out of 32 (AFC Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, SL Benfica, FC Porto, Fenerbahçe SK and Galatasaray SK) do not play in one of Europe’s ‘big 5’ leagues, and these clubs only account for approximately 5% of the total enterprise value of the 32 clubs evaluated.
