Europe's top soccer clubs face $2.4bln revenue hit

Europe's elite soccer clubs are expected to miss out on over 2 billion euros - that’s $2.43 billion in revenue by the end of the current 2020/21 season, through a combination of reasons all stemming from the ongoing global health crisis.

Figures in Deloitte's Football Money League report published on Tuesday (January 26) also include missed amounts from the end of the last campaign.

It shows the top 20 highest-earning clubs in Europe earned 8.2 billion euros of combined revenue, which was down 12% on the previous season.

Izzy Wray from Deloitte explained the reduction.

“The composition of that 12% reduction is a combination of reduction in match day revenue, of course, from having no fans in the stadiums for the postponed seasons, broadcaster rebates as a result of the seasons either being cancelled or postponed.”

With the majority of games being played without fans in stadiums since June, matchday revenue for top European clubs is likely to remain close to zero for some time to come.

“We’ll definitely see more digital fan engagement, and, so, I think that's something that clubs have been very focused on this season, and a lot of them have seen some relative success in that. So, I think we'll see that sort of continuing and clubs looking for more innovative ways to engage with fans digitally, even when fans were able to go back in stadiums."

Barcelona missed out on the Spanish title last season, but the Catalan club retained the top spot in terms of annual revenue totalling $790.5 million.

However, the money league also showed Barca suffered the second largest revenue fall among the clubs on the list, down from a record breaking $959 million.