High losses, but also high sales - Oliver Frankenbach, CFO of Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball AG, had good and bad news to announce in his financial report.

The corona pandemic continues to burden Eintracht's budget.

Frankenbach reported another loss of 31.9 million euros on Tuesday (previous year: 36.1 million).

Julia Basic

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

Nevertheless, the Bundesliga club increased its sales significantly.

With 284.4 million euros, Eintracht achieved the second highest turnover in its history.

In the previous year this was 160.4 million euros, in the record year 2019/2020 it was 278.1 million euros.

Eintracht got through the pandemic with a black eye, an international title and participation in the Champions League are outstanding, "but you can't plan that," said Frankenbach.

Frankenbach cited the further restrictions in the audience area due to the pandemic as the reason for the losses.

"In the Bundesliga we played 13 out of 17 home games with restrictions, and in the Europa League four out of six home games were not completely sold," he said.

taken out loans

The loss of equity is also particularly clear.

While this was 39 million euros in the previous year, it has now shrunk to 5.9 million.

This is accompanied by higher debt.

These rose from 46.3 million to 62.9 million euros.

"The largest part is of course the long-term debt related to the professional camp," said Frankenbach.

"But we've already brought some things back there, too."

In order to maintain liquidity, loans amounting to 30.1 million euros were taken out.

"Of course we got into debt during the pandemic," said Frankenbach.

"But we will try to reduce this debt and create a balance between equity and debt."

Participation in the Champions League should contribute to debt reduction.

"Of course, the amount of proceeds depends on how successful we are," said Frankenbach.

However, around 30 million euros from TV marketing can be expected.

Another magic word is “equity capital measure”.

In 2018 and 2021, the AG had expanded its group of shareholders and last April alone added equity of almost 22 million euros to the company.

"As a result, the equity was not completely lost, but we were still able to invest in the squad and in other areas to remain competitive," Frankenbach looked back.

That also made the triumph of Seville possible.

Work is currently underway to increase equity again this calendar year.

However, the CFO did not want to be more specific.

Increase in sales possible

Frankenbach named the revenue from media rights as the largest revenue item, which rose from EUR 80.8 million to EUR 106.2 million.

The Europa League made a significant contribution to this with 36.8 million euros.

The biggest growth was in viewership, which grew to 31.2 percent from half a million last year, despite the pandemic restrictions that sometimes still apply.

There was also a big plus in merchandising: Here sales rose from 11.1 million to 17.6 million – a record.

In May alone, the merchandising made four million euros in sales.

Frankenbach is confident that sales could be significantly increased, even beyond the 250 million mark.

"Of course, expenses will also increase, but not to the same extent as we had now." The Europa League victory cost a lot of money due to premiums due.

In the future, however, rising sales and falling costs would lead to a balanced result or a slight profit zone.

Despite the loss and the debt, Frankenbach currently sees no need to sell players: "We don't have to make a transfer, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten the license before the season." The financial situation is secure, the economic pressure is not that high.

Nevertheless: "If we should get offers, for whomever, on a scale that makes economic sense for us, then we have to think about it."