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As every spring, when the Italian teams are eliminated from the Champions League, major discussions on the health of our football begin. In this article, the editorial team of the Bocconi Students for Sports Management blog will attempt to provide a snapshot of the financial situation of football in Italy, at a unique historical moment that offers original reflections and opens up a future that, for unavoidable reasons, will necessarily diverge from the models used so far.
There are four key topics identified that deserve particular attention: the decrease in football clubs’ revenues, the effects of the absence of fans in the stands, the interruption of youth and amateur sports, and the historic shift of Serie A’s TV rights from satellite to internet transmission.
The Negative Trend of Revenues
A clear and concise question often resurfaces online and in social media comments: is football more of a sport or an entertainment? There is no single answer to this question, but both sectors have been severely impacted economically by the pandemic, registering a sharp decline in revenues.
Football, as entertainment, reaches its highest expression in the fan atmosphere and the choreography in the stands. Since March 2021, when unfortunately stadiums began to empty, it has been 12 months that teams have not had the chance to be supported by their fans. If we consider the top 20 teams in Europe, the absence of fans has heavily affected their financials: the revenue decrease for the 2019-2020 season amounted to 250 million euros, representing a 20% reduction in turnover compared to the previous year.
Even though the absence of fans in the stands might initially seem like the most serious cause of the “sports-entertainment” football crisis, the situation is much more complex. Of the over 1.5 billion euros in revenue loss for the top 20 football clubs globally, 937 million euros are due to a reduction in television rights income. The outlook for this football season, which is nearing its end, appears even darker, with the most optimistic forecast showing a loss of 2 billion euros compared to the pre-COVID era.
The consequences of the negative revenue decline will likely be seen in the future. While clubs are trying to counter the “empty stadium” effect through new sponsorships and commercial partnerships, the gap between costs and revenues is, unfortunately, widening inexorably. In a sport where athletes’ salaries have exponentially increased in recent decades, it may have reached a maximum limit. It is likely that salary increases will no longer be sustainable, and, at least until the situation stabilizes, teams will have to be much more careful when signing multi-million contracts.
The Absence of Fans in the Stands
Our analysis must necessarily focus on the heavy impact the absence of fans has had on Italian clubs, a topic we already addressed in one of our podcast episodes. At first glance, it seems evident to anyone that the absence of fans in the stadium means a missed revenue for the respective club, which can vary in severity depending on factors such as the average cost of a season ticket and the average number of fans present per game.
On average, for an Italian team, a fan attending the stadium—assuming their presence at all home games—generates around 284 euros per year. This provides a very clear overall picture of what Italian clubs have been going through recently. The absence of fans has led to a total loss of 90 million euros for Serie A as a whole. Moreover, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that many teams, such as the two Milanese clubs, had been experiencing a positive trend in fan attendance, which would have resulted in a significant increase in revenues.
The COVID-19 epidemic does not only result in a lack of income from ticket sales but also affects numerous related activities that previously generated income for Italian clubs. For example, many fans may choose not to purchase their team’s jersey, either due to financial reasons or simply because they cannot wear it with pride in the stadium. This negative repercussion further aggravates the overall situation of Italian football, which will only improve with a strong return of fans to the stadium once the epidemic is over.
The attempt to return to some semblance of normality comes from the Netherlands, where the league is experimenting with opening the stadium to a limited number of fans, self-certified and tested at the end of the match. Is it time to try a similar approach in Italy? The goal is to welcome a significant number of fans as soon as possible: a boost comes directly from the government, confirming the possibility of filling the Olympic Stadium to 25% capacity for European Championship matches.
Focus on Amateur Football
While professional football never stopped during this pandemic, the amateur sector suffered a significant setback. With the implementation of red zones, last autumn the FIGC was forced to suspend all competitions that were not of national importance. In amateur football, only men’s Serie D and women’s Serie A and B were spared from the suspension. Regarding the Lega Calcio a 5, a branch of the National Amateur League, the suspension did not affect men’s Serie A, A2, and B, as well as women’s Serie A and B. Other leagues were first suspended and, in most cases, cancelled. There are very few instances of competition resumption, such as the men’s Eccellenza, which resumed in late spring.
The halt to regional and provincial football, along with much of the youth and grassroots activities, resulted in the near-total cancellation of the 2020-2021 football season for amateurs, who make up the majority of football players in Italy, at least in numerical terms. Focusing on the youth sector, the loss is both sporting and educational.
From a sporting perspective, the lack of training led to technical and tactical gaps for boys and girls, which will be hard to close. Therefore, there will be a sports gap, the consequences of which will only be felt in a few years. From an educational standpoint, it is important to note that youth sectors are primarily places where athletes learn to relate to teammates, respect opponents, work in a team, and collaborate with people from different social and national backgrounds. The football field is a powerful life school where many things are learned, not only from a sports perspective, if supported by the right educators: coaches.
However, these considerations should not lead to the belief that halting these competitions was a mistake. On the contrary, stopping the activities of these clubs was a very wise choice to limit infections and the subsequent spread of the virus to the families of athletes, who may be older or more vulnerable. For this reason, a protocol was drawn up for national amateur competitions that never stopped, aiming to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Among the strictest measures is the requirement for players to undergo a COVID-19 test before every match to limit the risk. If a member tests positive, it often leads to the entire team being quarantined due to the close contact during training and matches. As a result, many games were postponed, and calendars were modified to allow for recovery. A unique case was that of Bubi Merano, a team in the national Serie A2 futsal league. Due to the stricter provincial regulations in South Tyrol, the club could not train or play matches during peak infection periods. As a result, the club withdrew from the league in April, with almost half of the games still to be played. However, this was an isolated case, with the team’s points being wiped from the standings.
The federation’s goal is now to restart in September with regular competition schedules.
The Revolution of TV
On March 26, after prolonged negotiations, the Assembly of the Serie A Football League, composed of the presidents (or delegates) of the twenty Serie A clubs, reached the two-thirds majority necessary to assign the TV rights for the next three sports seasons. The winning offer, as is now well-known, came from Dazn, which will pay the clubs 850 million euros per season and will ensure all ten Serie A matches per matchday are broadcast.
This is, without a doubt, a revolution: Serie A becomes the first European league to be broadcast entirely via streaming, demonstrating how football is following the digital revolution that has led OTT/On-demand platforms to become more and more prevalent in our homes, offering subscription services at affordable prices due to significantly lower costs than satellite transmission.
What does this shift in TV rights mean for Italian football financially? What are the pros and cons for clubs and consumers?
At present, it is difficult to provide a clear answer, but it must be noted that Dazn’s offer was far more advantageous than Sky’s, by about 125 million euros per season (875 million vs. 750 million), which definitely provides an immediate benefit to the clubs, who are suffering from a significant drop in revenues due to the pandemic.
Forecasted offers were much lower after Sky postponed the last payment of the previous season: this event revealed the precarious financial situation of the Comcast-owned giant, a long-standing partner of Serie A, and few expected Dazn to be in a position to offer more, given that it is a much younger company with a smaller presence in Italy.
The 850 million offer is very close to Dazn’s total revenue in 2019, and to support this figure, the company received financial backing from Telecom, and it is likely that it will raise the price of its service for the next season (with a potential increase to about 30 euros per month).
While the ability to watch all of Serie A with a single subscription is certainly an improvement for all Italian football fans and consumers, there are still concerns about Dazn’s ability to offer a service at the level of Sky’s, as demonstrated by recent events: a considerable part of Italy still lacks a sufficiently fast internet connection to support the streaming of an event like a football match, and the fear of buffering or watching a match at 240 pixels is, at least in some parts of Italy, very real.
Dazn is of course aware of these issues and has taken action by signing a partnership with Telecom/Tim, which will provide its internet network—the most widespread in Italy—to ensure the best possible experience for consumers and prevent situations like the Inter-Cagliari match. In exchange, Dazn will offer access to exclusive content, which will be available only on Timvision.
In the past two weeks, discussions have also taken place regarding a backup plan if the internet connection is insufficient. The solution should be the creation of two channels that will broadcast Serie A matches on digital terrestrial television, still relying on the Timvision platform, reinforcing the partnership between Dazn and Telecom, which is destined to be a key element of Italian football in the coming years.
The full shift of TV rights to a streaming platform thus provides a glimpse into the inevitable future of television broadcasting, offering Italian football a chance to lead the way in Europe and showing that our country is capable of supporting technological innovation in sports broadcasting.
Written by Filippo Laurora, Stefano Maggioni, Gianandrea Novellone, and Giacomo Panero
BOCCONI STUDENTS FOR SPORT MANAGEMENT 
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