2024 has been an interesting year for the football industry. From revenue crossing billion euros to increased private capital investments, the year has seen all. At SBI we decided to pick five most interesting developments or trends which we felt will go on to become even bigger in the year 2025. Please note these are not ranked as per any particular order
A. Increase In Revenue
The European football industry revenue in 22/23 is €35.3bn, grown by 16% over 21/22 as per Deloitte Football Finance Report. The revenue is expected to reach €37.6bn growing by 7% in 23/24. While the growth rate is slowing, there are indications that the top 20 highest revenue will grow at a faster rate than the collective European football industry. The results posted by some clubs are testament to the hypothesis
- 2024 gets the into the record books as Real Madrid CF became the first football club to surpass the €1bn revenue mark in a single season
- They were closely followed by Bayern Munich FC who achieved €1.07bn for the 2023/24 financial year of which the football team achieved €951.5m in record turnover, whilst FC Bayern Basketball GmbH and FC Bayern Munich eV helped to make the total turnover break over €1bn
- Manchester City continues to lead the Premier League with £715mn revenue posted for 23/24, a marginal increase from 22/23 revenue
Aside to that, the revenue gap between Premier League and other leagues continue to widen. As of 22/23 financial review, the gap between Premier League and Laliga, the league with next highest revenue is 81%. With an increased Premier League media rights deal, the gap is further expected to widen
Across the pond, in MLS, Inter Miami CF is expected to become the first franchise to surpass $200mn in 2024. For the record, Inter Miami is growing at a CAGR of 41% although the actual growth has happened since Messi joined in 2022. The recorded revenue of Inter Miami in 2023 is $127mn, a growth of a whopping 131% over 2022
B. Growth In Women’s Football
Women’s football has become one of the fastest growing sports in the world. From matchday attendances to growth in sponsorships and significant rise in investments are the hallmark of women’s football in 2024
- The trend of increase in attendances in women’s football is seen across Europe. In WSL, the English domestic league, average attendance in 23/24 has grown by 31% to reach 7,363 per match over 22/23 season average of 5,616. In Frauen-Bundesliga Germany, a 6% increase was seen in 2023/24 over 22/23. Similar increase was reported in France and Spain too where French D1 Arkema attendances grew by 14% and Liga F by 8%
- Research from the Women’s Sport Trust shows 4 in 5 brand decision makers say they are likely to invest in women’s sport sponsorship in the next three years. Sponsor United’s report ‘Women in Sports Marketing Partnerships 2023-24’ says that number of sponsorships in women’s professional sports increased by more than 22% YoY across leagues, teams and athletes from 2023 to 2024 with football leading the way. In WSL, Barclay’s bank continues as title sponsor of the Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship to 2028, doubling investment from the previous contract term
- Women’s Super League (WSL) has been restructured new independent company, known temporarily as Women’s Professional League Limited (WPLL), to govern women’s professional football in place of the FA leading of a commercial organisation under a dedicated management team whose sole responsibility is to generate revenue and sustainable growth for the women’s league, for the first time
- Women’s football is now at the juncture where dedicated investment fund is being formed. Mercury/13, a buyout fund aimed at buying controlling stakes in women’s football clubs in Europe and South America with the goal of investing $100mn, acquired a controlling stake in Italian top-flight soccer club Como Women
- SportsPro’s 150 Most Marketable Athletes list features 57 football players out of which 19 are females. 14 of the top marketable female football players come from WSL and Liga Femenini
C. The Crypto Comeback
Crypto is now in the revival period, notably led by institutional investors, rather than the hobby-investors of 2021. In sports sponsorships, 26 new deals across sports have been signed in 2024 as per beincrypto.com with football leading as the popular sport. Some of the biggies include Crypto.com’s UEFA deal and Bitget’s LaLiga partnership. Beyond football, in one of the high profile deals, Crypto.com has signed the extension of F1 sponsorship till 2030
Another very interesting development is the formation of a new independent division by Chiliz, the parent company of fan token firm Socios, to broker sponsorships between sports properties and blockchain brands. Named Chilliz Sports, they are designed to identify opportunities and partners, providing support, advice and guidance, in other words, a specialised sports sponsorship agency focusing on crypto
Crypto is determined to be in for a long run!
D. Expanding Multi-Club Ownership Network
The recent acquisition of Everton FC by The Friedkin Group adds to the expanding network of multi-club ownership groups. UEFA European Club Investment & Finance Landscape defines ‘multi-club ownership’ a situation where a party exerts control and/or decisive influence over more than one club, while ‘multi-club investment’ refers to a situation where a party has investment interests in more than one club (without exerting control or influence)
- With the addition of Everton FC in the network, for the 2024/25 season, 41.7% i.e. 40 clubs of the ‘big five leagues’ are a part of the MCO network in one way, up from 36.7% two seasons ago
- As of end 2023, the UEFA Intelligence Centre identified more than 230 clubs worldwide that were part of a multi-club investment structure
- Not only top tier clubs, recent years have seen US-based investors targeting clubs outside top tier leagues too. In English football, they have been seen opting for teams like Sheffield United, Birmingham City and Norwich City, which have faced financial struggles but retain strong histories and fanbases
Involvement of private capital in football especially prime European leagues is rapidly changing. This will further lead to the necessity of creating multiple levels of framework by UEFA, the governing body to avoid cases of potential clashes like one being seen in this year’s European club competitions
E. AI & Data Are Transforming Football
Artificial Intelligence – the two words disrupting, or if we put in the context, creating endless possibilities for sports industry. And the industry is lapping it up whole-heartedly so much so that statistics show, the AI segment in the sports industry will reach a value of $19.2bn by 2030. It might just be an understatement. AI has a symbiotic relationship with data – big data analytics leverages AI for better data analysis. In turn, AI requires a massive scale of data to learn and improve decision-making processes
It’s too simplistic to create the impact of AI & data in sports over few points, however, here are some areas where it will have a very strong effect
- Scouting and recruitment: The use of AI in football for scouting uses a combination of advanced statistical models, artificial intelligence, and understanding of the football club’s individual needs, philosophies, and team dynamics to reduce transfer waste and identify the right talent. Brighton & Brentford are examples of how they’ve effectively used the tool
- Sports broadcasting: AI is set to transform the way sport is covered, processed, distributed and consumed. From AI-powered cameras producing multi-angle broadcasts, creating more data for fan engagement at the same time allowing teams to analyse their performance. Mind-boggling array of capabilities
- Athlete recovery: NFL has implemented an AI-powered tool called The Digital Athlete. It’s a 3D rendering of a player taking any play, runs it at every angle and in any condition, millions of times, allowing medical team to see the results so they can better guide player safety in practice and on game day. We can expect such tools from different leagues soon enough
- Fan engagement: Multiple surveys point to the interest of younger audiences towards clips and highlights rather than live matches which leads to increase in efforts from broadcasters like creating volumes of shorts clips, personalised content, interesting match-moments and so on. AI is making all this possible
Lots More To Look Forward In 2025…
The above compiled aside few other developments too have been seen like introduction of the Football Governance Bill in UK, Man City’s charges and so on which we will discuss in another blog. We would like to hear from you too if you feel any other development worth mention, please feel free to write to us
In all sense, 2024 has been a year with more positives than negatives for the football industry. We hope the same for you too. Signing off 2024 with warm wishes for the coming year
