Season 2024/25 will go down in the history books as the trophy drought-ending year. Several teams across multiple leagues broke the period of trophy droughts over a decade or more and each of victory is a magnificent story in itself. Overjoyed supporters and renewed with confidence, for many of these clubs, the story has just begun. Each of these clubs deserve a mention:
- Beginning with Tottenham Hotspur winning their first trophy in 17 years with no less than Europa League title enabling them a Champions League spot for 25/26.
- Bologna FC defeated AC Milan in the Coppa Italia to win their first trophy in 51 years.
- Crystal Palace broke the 119-year lasting drought defeating Manchester City to win the FA Cup and securing a Europa League spot for the first time.
- Newcastle United ended the trophy drought with victory in the EFL Cup final against Liverpool winning their first domestic silverware in 70 years.
- Dutch club Go Ahead Eagles etched their name in the ranks of the Netherlands Cup winners, unexpectedly defeating Alkmaar AZ in the final.
- Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise defeated KAA Gent to win the Belgian league title for the twelfth time but the first since 1935, that’s ending a 90 year drought.
- In Scotland, Aberdeen FC ended a 35 year trophy drought by winning the Scottish cup against Celtic.
Of course, Paris Saint-Germain also makes the list by winning the Champions League for the first time in club history.
Remarkable season! Huge round of applause for the all the teams.
While they celebrate, we take a closer look at the ‘big five’ domestic league winners in this blog. For Liverpool, the domestic league title is as memorable as it can be since it is the second in the Premier League era, and the first with fans in the stadium to celebrate. Last time they won, it was during the pandemic period without fans. For Napoli, this was the fourth title overall and the second one in three seasons. Bayern with 33 domestic titles, Barcelona with 28 titles and PSG with 13 domestic titles set the tone for the coming season.
Financial Overview
It’s not surprising that each of the ‘big five’ league winners have consistently been a part of the exclusive list comprising of highest revenue generating clubs as compiled by Deloitte. In 23/24, the aggregate revenue generated by the five clubs is €3.3bn, almost 11.3% of the total revenue expected to be generated by 700+ European top tier clubs in the same period.
While Paris Saint-Germain leads the list with total revenue of €806mn, Napoli stands dwarfed with a total revenue of €255mn. Incidentally, except Napoli, the other four have reported revenues upwards of €700mn. Another interesting fact is, commercial revenue stream has contributed around 50% in case of PSG, Liverpool, Bayern and Barcelona whereas for Napoli, the share of commercial revenue stands at 35%. This goes on to show the extent of dependence and focus of these clubs is on developing its commercial marketability.
In the squad market value segment too, Napoli trails behind the other four who have their squad values upwards of €850mn, while the value for Napoli is €356mn.
It is the wages to revenue (W/R) where Napoli scores the best at a reported 45% ratio and contrarily PSG scores the lowest with a very high 83%, much above the UEFA suggested 70%. The other three are at modest range of 56%-65%. In fact, a recurring problem for PSG has been the high W/R ratio averaging over 87% in the last 5 seasons and it is expected that they would take it in a more serious manner.
Social Media
It’s incredible to think that the five league winners command a fan following of nearly 900mn in the primary account in Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), YouTube and TikTok channels! Mind it, we have just considered the main language. Clubs also have a considerable following over other language channels. In this area, Barcelona leads heads and tails over the others with a combined fan following of 389mn with Napoli being the lowest at 18.7 mn.
Instagram and TikTok have been turning out to the fastest growing mediums in the recent past. Combined followers of these two channels are around 50% of each club.
Enterprise Valuation
The Enterprise Value (EV) of a company, indicating worth of business regardless of the capital structure used to finance its operations, is calculated as the sum of the market value of the owners’ equity, plus total debt, less cash and cash equivalents. Football Benchmark calculates EV of each club considering five parameters, each with their own specific weight to give a parity – profitability, popularity, sporting potential in form of squad market value, broadcasting rights and stadium ownership.
Given the latest list shared by Football Benchmark in 2025, FC Barcelona leads with a EV of €4.46bn followed by Bayern Munich and Liverpool at nearly level terms with €4.28bn and €4.2bn respectively. PSG is placed next with an EV of €3.76bn and Napoli at fifth amongst them at almost €1.1bn. Conversely, it’s Napoli which has grown fastest y-o-y basis at 21%!
In Conclusion
2024/25 has been a historic season. As we mentioned earlier this season can be termed as the break-the-trophy-drought season. It also saw a vigorous fight till the end in many domestic leagues, especially with the race to secure the next season Champions League spot. The trophies, the CL spots has already led to a flurry of actions in the transfer market and it’s barely the start.
We can count on a cracker of a season to come!
