Welcome to issue #061 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.
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On paper, Italian football had a great season.
Serie A crossed €4 billion in total revenues in 2024/25.
A new record.
Is the system healing?
It isn’t.
First, look at this number
Despite record revenues, Serie A clubs closed the season with an aggregate loss of €348.9m
Better than the year before.
Still deeply negative.
More money came in.
Almost all of it leaked out.
That’s not growth.
That’s a bucket with a hole.
Why revenues went up (and why they don’t last)
The jump to €4bn wasn’t structural.
It was pushed by:
UEFA prize money from a new European cycle
Inter reaching the Champions League final
one-off FIFA revenues from the Club World Cup for Inter and Juventus
a sharp increase in player trading income, close to €1bn
Two problems.
First, some of these revenues are not repeatable.
Second, the core operating model didn’t change.
That’s why the number of clubs in loss stayed the same:
13 in red, 7 in profit.
Look at who actually made money
Atalanta.
Inter.
Bologna.
Lecce.
Torino.
Different sizes. Same pattern.
They control costs.
They sell well.
They don’t chase growth blindly.
The other side:
Juventus, Roma, Napoli, Lazio, Fiorentina.
Big brands. Big ambitions. Losses.
Now compare this with Germany
While Serie A lost €348.9m, the Bundesliga closed 2024/25 with a €242.1m aggregate profit.
Not break-even.
Profit.
Revenues grew to €5.1bn.
Costs grew slower.
That’s the key line.
Revenue growth: +6.7%
Cost growth: +4.1%
That gap is everything.
German clubs didn’t grow by magic.
They grew by not letting costs run faster than revenues.
(Source: DFL Economic Report)
EBITDA tells the real story
All 18 Bundesliga clubs posted positive EBITDA.
Total EBITDA exceeded €1.07bn.
In Italy, EBITDA is still fragile, uneven, and dependent on player sales.
This means one thing.
In Germany, football operations generate cash.
In Italy, football operations need help.
And the pitch reflects the balance sheet
European competitions don’t lie.
In the new Champions League format:
no Italian club qualified directly for the round of 16
three went to playoffs
one was eliminated early
That alone wouldn’t be dramatic.
What matters is who went out.
Here’s our conclusion
Serie A is not poor.
It’s inefficient.
It can generate revenue.
It cannot retain value.
More money flows through the system every year,
but clubs still behave as if the next miracle run will save them.
It won’t.
What this season really showed
One-off revenues hide structural weakness
Player trading is propping up operations, not enhancing them
Cost control, not ambition, decides sustainability
On-pitch results increasingly mirror financial discipline
Germany didn’t “win” by spending less.
It won by growing slower than its own revenues.
Final thought
The question for Serie A is no longer:
“How do we earn more?”
It’s simpler, and harder:
What are we willing to stop doing?
Until that answer changes, €4bn will never be enough.
See you tomorrow,
Federico
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