Welcome to issue #069 of Contemporary Football, your inside look at how the game really works behind the scenes.
Monday to Friday, you’ll uncover a new perspective on football business, and sometimes a deeper story that sharpens your thinking and gives you an edge in the beautiful game.
If you need support on your football journey, just write me.
Serie A generated €4bn in revenue last season.
It still lost €349m.
The issue is not revenue.
The machine works
At the operating level, Serie A is not broken.
Aggregate EBITDA reached €862m, up 20%
Sixteen clubs were positive.
Inter, AC Milan, Atalanta BC, Juventus, and Napoli all generated strong operating margins.
This means something important.
Clubs can produce cash from their core activity.
Matchday works.
Broadcast works.
Commercial works.
The engine runs.
Then the engine overheats
Now look at costs.
Total costs: €4.2bn.
Wages: €1.9bn.
Amortisation: just over €1bn.
Wages plus amortisation equal almost €3bn.
That is roughly 75% of total revenue, including player trading.
Here is the shift in perspective.
EBITDA tells you if the business works this year.
Amortisation tells you how expensive your past decisions were.
Serie A generates €862m of operating profit.
It then absorbs more than €1bn in amortisation before even touching interest or taxes.
That is why EBIT is negative.
That is why the bottom line remains red.
The league is not operationally weak.
It’s structurally rigid.
Revenue grows.
Sporting costs expand with it.
The surplus never reaches equity.
That is the €4 billion paradox.
Debt is not exploding
Flexibility is shrinking.
Gross debt stands at €4.89bn, about 121% of revenue.
Net financial debt is far lower at around €1.16bn.
This is not a system on the verge of collapse.
But much of that improvement came from shareholder support, not retained profit.
Which means the system survives because owners intervene.
The Discipline Gap
While Serie A lost €348.9m, the Bundesliga closed 2024/25 with an aggregate profit of €242.1m.
Revenues reached €5.1bn.
And this is the interesting part:
• Revenue growth: +6.7%
• Cost growth: +4.1%
That gap is everything.
German clubs did not explode commercially.
They simply refused to let costs outrun revenues.
That sounds basic. It’s not.
In Italy, revenue growth gets absorbed by wages and amortisation almost immediately.
In Germany, growth is filtered.
Costs rise, but slower.
A 2.6% point spread between revenue and cost growth looks small in one season.
Across five seasons, it becomes a big advantage.
Profit feeds equity.
Equity strengthens balance sheets.
Stronger balance sheets reduce financing pressure.
Less pressure improves decision-making.
Germany treated growth as something to protect.
Italy treated growth as something to spend.
Bundesliga vs Serie A
Now step back.
Serie A today has:
• Strong EBITDA
• High wage intensity
• Growing amortisation
• Persistent net losses
• Heavy dependence on the transfer cycle
This is not a revenue problem.
It’s a capital allocation problem.
Bundesliga converts revenue into retained capital and infrastructure.
Italy converts revenue into wages and transfers.
Two leagues. Two models.
Here is the real question for the next five years.
Will Italian clubs change how they allocate capital?
Because if wages and amortisation continue to absorb almost all operating value, revenue growth alone will not create profitability.
And without profitability, there is no accumulation.
Without accumulation, there is no strategic freedom.
That is the part most discussions miss.
Are you sure that “more TV money will fix everything”?
See you tomorrow,
Federico