The Consejo Superior de Deportes has published an analysis of the current state of Spanish football, based on the individual clubs’ financial accounts, which reveals that the country’s top two divisions (La Liga and Segunda División) generated revenue of over €3 billion in 2015/16.
Total revenues for last season amounted to €3.084 billion, an increase of 11.5%, of which €2.846 billion was generated by La Liga clubs and €238 million from teams in the second tier. Needless to say, the vast majority of La Liga’s revenue came from Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Income from TV rights was the primary source of revenue across the board, which according to the clubs’ financial statements made up 32.6% of the total income (32.8% in La Liga, 29.3% in the Segunda División).
However, since some clubs classified the TV retransmission rights as “other revenue” in their financial statements (following the move to sell TV rights centrally in order to share revenue more equally), the actual figure is slightly higher: according to figures released by La Liga, TV rights and the capital gains derived from them totalled €1.125 billion (36.5% of total income).
Transfer revenue only made up 11.4% of the total (11.1% in La Liga, 15.4% in the Segunda), and this decrease, according to the Consejo Superior de Deportes, was due to the fact that Spanish clubs sold fewer players during the 2015/16 season than in previous campaigns.
Total expenditure also increased by 12.4% to €2.934 billion (€2.707 billion in La Liga, €226 million in the second division), the primary cause of which was higher amounts being spent on and paid to players, itself due to the increased TV revenue made available to Spanish clubs as a result of the centralised TV rights deal.
There was further positive news for Spanish football as it was also revealed that total debt fell by €53.9 million (1.6%) compared to 2014/15. The total debt now stands at €3.388 billion, of which €2.998 billion is owed by La Liga clubs and €390 million by Segunda División sides.
