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A corner flag in the empty FSV Mainz 05 stadium advertises the Corona warning app
Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach / REUTERS
As expected, German professional football has made immense losses as a result of the corona pandemic.
As can be seen from the "DFL Economic Report 2022", the drop in sales of the first and second division clubs in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, which were shaped by Corona, amounts to more than one billion euros.
In the 2020/21 season, the total revenue of the men's top two divisions fell to 4.05 billion euros.
"Corona has already had drastic economic effects on the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 in the past two years," said the new DFL Managing Director Donata Hopfen.
“Unfortunately, this also affects the current season – especially because the grandstands often had to remain empty again.” Due to the few ticket sales alone, matchday revenue fell by 95 percent from 650 million to 35.5 million euros in the previous season.
In addition, in the current 2021/22 season, the proceeds from the exploitation of the German-language media rights and from international marketing were lower.
"We are experiencing an unprecedented caesura"
»We are experiencing an unprecedented caesura.
The time when growth was almost taken for granted seems to be over,” said Hopfen.
“Without a doubt” this will have a massive impact on developments over the next few years.
It is important to find “new ways” together with all clubs to make German professional football future-proof along “our traditions and values”, said the DFL boss.
A solution for many clubs could also be a reduction in salaries.
Because, contrary to the sales trend, they continue to rise rapidly, with 1.57 billion, the first division clubs spent 135 million more in this area in 2020/21 than in the last season before the 2018/19 pandemic.
In an international comparison, the Bundesliga still lags behind the top European leagues.
According to the report, in the “Annual Review of Football Finance” by the auditing firm Deloitte, which was published in December 2021 and reflects the 2019/20 season, the Bundesliga was in between in terms of the personnel expenses ratio, which puts the expenses for the professional team in relation to the total income 11 and 33 percent below the rate of the English Premier League, French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A and Spain LaLiga.
Clubs react with austerity measures
According to the report, the 18 clubs and corporations in the Bundesliga have reduced their spending in other areas.
For example, they reduced transfer expenses by 118 million euros, game operations by 89 million euros and saved 135 million euros in administration, advertising, materials and retail.
Notably, transfer earnings have fallen for the second straight month after rising for seven straight years ahead of the 2019/20 season.
The willingness to invest heavily in new players seems to have tended to decline.
Fewer jobs through ghost games
At 20,582, the number of people employed directly by the clubs remained relatively constant compared to the previous year.
However, significantly fewer people were deployed in the largely empty stadiums, especially in the area of security and guard service as well as with catering companies.
The numbers collapsed by 50 percent to just 26,183 people employed.
The effects of the pandemic are also made clear by other key figures: In the past 2020/21 season, ten of the 36 clubs achieved a positive result after tax - in the 2018/19 season it was 28. Despite the losses, the clubs in the two top leagues paid of men for the 2020/21 season 1.3 billion euros in taxes and duties.
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