European football market grows 4 pct

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Portugal’s forward Ricardo Quaresma (L) vies with Macedonia’s Stefan Ristovski during a football match. Europe’s football market has grown to nearly 17 billion euros. AFP photo

The European football market grew by 4 percent to 16.9 billion euros during the 2010-11 season, according to a report issued by a top auditing firm.

The market “continued to show resistance to wider economic pressures,” Deloitte said in its report titled “Annual Review of Football Finance 2012.”

The revenues of the “big five” leagues (Germany’s Bundesliga, Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1, England’s Premier League and Italy’s Serie A) increased 2 percent to 8.6 billion euros.

The Premier League remained far and away the league that generated the highest revenue in 2010-11 at 2.5 billion euros. La Liga revenues, meanwhile, grew by 5 percent to 1.7 billion euros. “This was again driven by Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, who achieved a combined 93 million euros – an 11 percent increase – in revenue,” said the report.

Russia, with 614 million euros, Turkey, with 515 million euros, and the Netherlands, with 431 million euros, followed in the big five’s wake in terms of generated revenue.

The Russian club model is particularly driven by commercial contributions, while Turkey has a much higher broadcasting value – 44 percent of the total – the report said.

“Broadcasting revenue was the main driver of growth – [rising] 3 percent – and now stands at over 4.1 billion euros, followed by commercial revenue, which was up 5 percent,” the report said about the big five leagues. “[This was] partly offset by a 2 percent decrease in match-day revenue as clubs adapted pricing strategies to deal with the difficult economic environment.”