European football gears up for new fight over money
Sharing the spoils: Europe’s top football clubs dismiss domestic complaints
When it comes to revenue growth, the Premier League usually dominates the headlines. But European club competitions are becoming increasingly productive cash cows for those that participate. Recent broadcast deals for Uefa’s Champions League have notched up significant increases, especially in the US market. The pot of cash to be spread across Europe is getting bigger and bigger.
That’s good news for the kind of clubs involved in the ECA — an increasingly powerful grouping headed by Nasser el-Khelaifi, the Qatari chair of Paris Saint-Germain.
The ECA has been on a push to increase its reach with the launch of the ECA Network, which will extend some of the group’s services to as many as 160 “aspiring” clubs. It was also the driving force behind the creation of the Europa Conference League, a new competition designed to give more teams the chance to play against their counterparts across the continent.
But not everyone is happy. Some at the domestic leagues fear that the growing gap between those who qualify for Europe and those who don’t risks distorting competition at home. They look at places like Croatia, where Dinamo Zagreb have won all but one league title since 2005, or the Bundesliga — where Bayern Munich are gunning for an 11th consecutive championship. The snowball effect of continued participation in the Champions League in particular is pushing the bigger clubs further and further ahead, they warn. As domestic competition wanes, so will interest from broadcasters.
But the ECA members aren’t buying it. They point to the Champions League results — where the opening few fixtures have shown how teams across Europe are still very capable of winning against deep-pocketed rivals, especially those from the Premier League. The ECA members also note that money generated from European competitions is already being shared with non-participants, and is becoming an increasingly important revenue source for clubs in smaller countries.
“European competitions are the ones that keep the balance right. It’s the big five countries’ domestic TV revenues that changes the competitive balance”, said Aki Riihilati, chief executive of HJK Helsinki and ECA vice-chair.
So while the leagues point the finger at the big clubs in the ECA, the clubs say the big leagues just aren’t doing their bit to share the spoils at home. This looks like a row that is just heating up.