Money Laundering through the Football Sector

Money Laundering through the Football Sector – July 2009
five‟ European leagues (the exception being Celtic in Scotland). The other half of the total European
football sector is divided between the other top and lower leagues in Europe and FIFA and UEFA.
39. Professional football in Western Europe relies on four main revenue sources: match day revenues
(gate receipts and all-season tickets), television rights, sponsorship (brand name placing on shirts and
around stadiums), and other commercial revenues (licensed merchandise, conference and catering
services). As table 3 shows, the relevance of television money is especially big for top-division clubs in the
big five European leagues, depending on the size of the television market (35 to over 60 percent of total
revenues). Clubs in countries with less developed economies rely for the biggest part on financial support
from owners and in some cases also local or national government.
12 - © 2009 FATF/OECD
Table 3. Revenue breakdown for the ten biggest European leagues , 2006-07
Total
(in million EUR)
Matchday
%
Broadcast
%
Sponsorship
%
Other
%
England* 2 273 35 39 26 -
Germany 1 379 22 35 26 17
Spain* 1 326 26 42 32 -
Italy 1 163 13 63 12 12
France 972 14 58 18 10
Netherlands 398 30 17 40 13
Scotland* 259 50 21 29 -
Portugal 239 33 19 13 35
Austria 151 13 9 60 18
Sweden 87 30 28 32 10
* Sponsorship and other commercial combined.
Source: Deloitte 2008, chart 1.3 and 1.8.
40. On the spending side, roughly more than half of the budgets of professional football
organisations is spent on salaries and related costs – which means players‟ salaries plus net transfer
payments. Other payments include salaries paid to other staff, business costs, image rights, signing-on fees
and transfer fees, including fees to players‟ agents. In smaller countries and lower divisions, players may
be part-timers with a second job, or amateurs.
41. Within the big five European leagues, over half of the revenues is spent on salaries and related
costs for players – these amounts paid to a very select group of top players, agents, managers, coaches. The
industry is thus characterised by a very uneven distribution of income - ranging from amateur players at the
lowest level, to half professionals, full professionals, and a select group of world star players.
42. To give an idea of the recent growth of professional football in Europe, total revenues in the big
five European football leagues rose from EUR 2.5 billion in 1996-97 to EUR 7.9 billion in 2007-2008.
Most of this increase came from broadcasting, of which a large part was channelled to increasing wage
costs as the top European leagues attract most of the world's best players. Wage costs increased to over
EUR 4.2 billion, compared with 1.2 ten years ago.
43. As already mentioned, the total size of the European football market is estimated at
EUR 13.8 billion EUR, of which EUR 4.2 billion is spent on salaries in the big five European leagues,
comprising only 98 clubs in total. This means one third of the football money flowing into the hands of a