The measures taken in the football world to contain the Covid pandemic, with games played behind closed doors in the five main European leagues, have had a heavy impact on club budgets. According to the Kpmg study, since the spring of 2020 the number of matches with an audience in the 2019/2020 season has decreased by 27% in the five major European leagues, directly contributing to a significant decrease in the day’s revenues, i.e. by approximately 500 million. euros, up to -1.9 billion euros between ticket offices, sponsors, merchandising, catering.
The biggest impact was suffered by the Bundesliga, being the league with the highest average number of spectators per game in the world, with € 157m in losses for the 18 clubs. While Ligue 1 has lost three times less (48 million). At the club level, Barcelona were the hardest hit of the league’s big five, with a € 39 million contraction in match day revenue, as Camp Nou, a tourist attraction in itself with 73,588 spectators , had the third highest average attendance of spectators behind Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Kpmg believes that the season that has just begun will only offer a partial recovery of these losses.