The Current State Of European Football, Explained In 5 Maps And 6 Charts

How Much Money Is Involved In Football?

The overall size of the European football market continues to increase in revenue terms, reaching €28.4 billion for 2017/18. According to Deloitte, the ‘Big Five’ European Football leagues are projected to generate around €18 billion by 2019/20. The top 5 football countries seem to be light years ahead of the rest and that doesn’t seem to change for the time being. From a financial point of view, England is by far the leader.

See also: Map Of All Champions League Winners

Revenue ‘Big Five’ European League Clubs

There are 5 European Leagues that earn a massive revenue and are valued more than a billion Euros each. They are,

Top 5 European Leagues By Revenue (€m):

1. England – Premier League: 5,400
2. Germany – Bundesliga: 3,168
3. Spain – La Liga: 3,073
4. Italy – Serie A: 2,217
5. France – Ligue 1: 1,692

The English Premier League has been the highest-grossing league for more than a decade now. Most of these revenues of the big leagues derive from broadcasting, sponsorships, commercials and matchday sales also make a significant contribution to their massive revenue stream as well.

The Total Value Of All Football Players By Country

The following map showcases the total value of all football players in those countries combined. In the following list, we only showcase the top 5, you can see the value of all countries in the map below.

1. England: € 9.27 Bn
2. Spain: € 5.99 Bn
3. Italy: € 5.20 Bn
4. Germany: € 4.60 Bn
5. Russia: € 1.04 Bn

The Five Most Expensive Football Players In History

The following are the most expensive players as of 2019.

Revenue Trend ‘Big Five’ European League Clubs

The following chart shows the historic trend and the future revenue trends of the Big Five European Leagues. Note that England is projected to be the highest-grossing league in the foreseeable future as well. France will continue to struggle with its domestic league revenues as not much growth is expected in terms of revenues and profit.

Big Five European League Clubs’Revenue And Wage Cost

In this chart, we are looking at both revenue and the wage costs of the Big Five leagues. This will provide a clearer understanding of the operating profits of these clubs. And once again, the Big Five ranking remains unchanged.

European Football Market Size

The European Football market size for the year 2017/18 was approximately 28.4 billion euros. An increase of nearly 3 billion euros from the previous year. A major portion of this belongs to the “Big Five” European leagues, 58% or around 14.7 billion euros.

Big Five European League Clubs Profitability (€m)

For the 2017/18, the Big Five and their estimated profitability were:

1. England: € 979 million
2. Germany: € 373 million
3. Spain: € 226 million
4. Italy: € 54 million
5. France: € -298 (Loss)

England is an unprecedented triumphant in terms of profit, taking home nearly 3 times of profit as its German counterpart. Italy’s Serie A has been struggling for the past few years yet has managed to increase the profit by nearly 25 million euros from the previous year. France is the only “Big Five” league to record a massive operating loss of nearly 300 million euros and it’s the biggest aggregate loss of the Ligue 01 to date.

Other European League Clubs Revenue (€m)

In terms of Revenue, the following are the other “non-big-five leagues” with significant revenues for the year 2017/18.

6. Russian Premjer League: € 813 million
7. Turkish Süper Lig: € 731 million
8. Dutch Eredivisie: € 495 million
9. Portuguese Primeira Liga: € 431 million
10. Scottish Premiership: € 233 million

The 5 Most Valuable Football Clubs In The World

The Spanish La Liga is the home to the most valuable teams in the world, Real Madrid and Barcelona, the “El Classico” rivals, each valued at more than 4 billion Euros. English Premier League’s Man Utd and Man City and German Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich are among the most valuable clubs as well.

1. Real Madrid: € 4.24 Bn
2. Barcelona: € 4.02 Bn
3. Man Utd: € 3.81 Bn
4. Bayern Munich: € 3.02 Bn
5. Man City: € 2.69 Bn

Why Are Football Players Paid So Much?

There are a few reasons behind this crazy 6-digit salaries the best football players receive, monthly.

1. Supply & demand:
   The best football players are extremely difficult to find. Not all football players become “super” players that go on to play in the European Leagues. Clubs compete with each other, bidding the highest amount on the best players to draft them to their clubs.
2. Football clubs getting insanely rich:
   Because of the rising popularity of Football (it is the most popular game in the world) and the rising impact of media in this digital era, football clubs are making money more than ever.
   
   Especially from broadcast rights, merchandise, ticket sales and even through online pay-per-view style broadcasting.
   
   There is a clear relationship between drafting the best players for the highest amount and the club’s success.
   
   This is the reason for clubs to pay exorbitant salaries to the best football players.

Lionel Messi earns nearly 600 times the
salary of the Prime Minister of England.

What Is The Average Age Of Players By European Football League?

The top 5 countries with the lowest average age:

1. Slovakia: 23.8 years
2. Estonia: 24 years
3. Netherlands: 24.2 years
4. Slovenia: 24.4 years
5. Ireland: 24.4 years

The top 5 countries with the highest average age:

1. Andorra: 28.2
2. Kazakhstan: 27.1
3. England: 26.9
4. Spain: 26.9
5. Belarus: 26.9

Slovakia has the youngest while Andorra has the oldest players on average. The bigger leagues, usually have a bit older average age per player. This is because these leagues often look at the player experience as well when drafting players for their teams.

The Game Ratio Of Foreign Football Players In European Football Leagues

Most of the European Leagues have a significant game ratio of foreign players in their leagues. “Foreign” means players who are not residents of the country where the league is played. The following map shows the game ratio of foreign players in each European football league.

The Number Of Clubs Per European League

The following are the top 10 European leagues the highest number of clubs in their domestic league tournaments. Note that all big five leagues except Germany have 20 teams each.

1. Premier League (England): 20
2. La Liga (Spain): 20
3. Serie A (Italy):20
4. Bundesliga (Germany): 18
5. Ligue 1 (France): 20
6. Liga NOS (Portugal): 18
7. Premjer Liga (Russia): 16
8. Eredivisie (Netherlands): 18
9. Jupiler Pro League (Belgium): 16
10. Süper Lig (Turkey): 18

Top 10 Record Football Champions

The following list shows the football clubs that have been victorious the highest number of times in their respective domestic leagues.

1. Rangers (Scotland): 54
2. Linfield (Northern Ireland): 51
3. Olympiacos Piraeus (Greece): 44
4. Benfica (Portugal): 37
5. Juventus (Italy): 35
6. Ajax (Netherlands): 34
7. RSC Anderlecht (Belgium): 34
8. Real Madrid (Spain): 33
9. Rapid Vienna (Austria): 32
10. CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria): 31

FC Rangers in Scotland won the most national league titles in Europe. Only 2 clubs from the ‘Big Five’ leagues have made it here. Juventus and Real Madrid, respectively are the champions who have held the title the most number of times in the Spanish La Liga and the Italian Serie A.