Lausanne (AFP)
The health crisis could reduce the revenues of European football clubs by 6.5 to 8.5 billion euros, Andrea Agnelli, president of Juventus Turin and the European Club Union (ECA), warned Wednesday.
Unveiled during the online seminar "e-think Sport", this range represents a clear reassessment compared to the study carried out in summer 2020 by the ECA, which counted on 4 billion euros of cumulative shortfall on two seasons.
If the 2019-2020 season has known "only three or four months of crisis", with losses in ticketing, in commercial revenues as in TV rights, "it seems that 2020-2021 will be an entire season without supporters in the stadiums, ”said Agnelli.
Under these conditions, "when I look at the best information available to us, the baseline scenario for industry in the region is 6.5 to 8.5 billion euros for the two years combined," he said. he declares.
In addition, on the cash side, "about 360 clubs need cash injections, whether in the form of debt or capitalization, for a total of 6 billion euros over two years", continued the boss of the Juve.
While the previous ECA study did not take into account the accounting impact of the slowdown in the transfer market, Andrea Agnelli mentioned a 2.6 billion euros drop in revenue in one year, a plunge of 40 %.
"The whole industry is going through a very complicated period, which requires serious reflection on how we want to approach the future," said the manager, defender of the interests of the big clubs.
He remained evasive on the ongoing negotiations of future continental competitions after 2024, notably refraining from commenting on the plans for a "Superleague" reserved for European leaders and fought by football authorities.
But he considered "very interesting" the idea of an overhaul of the group stage of the Champions League inspired by the Swiss system, with a unique group of 32 or 36 teams each playing 10 matches against 10 different opponents.
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