Football Industry

Revenues of Italian football grow, critical issues remain between debts and old stadiums

New Reportcalcio by Figc, PwC and Arel highlights historic record of revenue with total losses down to 731 million in the 2023/24 season

by Marco Bellinazzo

31 July 2025

6' min read

Key points

Increased revenues
Stadium attendance
International competitiveness
The sore notes
Sports facilities

6' min read

In the last two seasons, Italian football, although within a framework in which large areas of criticality persist (from facilities to indebtedness), has seen an increase in overall turnover, which in the 2023/24 season exceeded the historical threshold of 4.5 billion Euro, growing at a much faster pace than costs. Specifically, between 2021-2022 and 2023-2024, turnover grew by 32%, compared to +7% for labour costs, whose incidence on the value of production therefore dropped from 69% to 56%. The total losses in three years were thus halved from 1.4 billion to 731 million.

These are some of the most significant data that emerged from the 15th edition of the ReportCalcio, the annual report on Italian and international football developed by the Figc Research Centre in collaboration with Arel (Agenzia di Ricerche e Legislazione) and PwC Italia that has just been published. "An unparalleled instrument of transparency and analysis," underlined federal president Gabriele Gravina, "in terms of the number of information and depth of the topics dealt with, it is by far the most complete and exhaustive study on the Italian football movement, which still represents the first national sporting reference in terms of number of registered members, economic value generated and spread of projects in the social sphere. A document that identifies strategies and proposes medium to long-term solutions, also thanks to an in-depth international benchmarking study, in order to guarantee real and stable development for the entire system. Our priorities are: to invest in facilities in a decisive manner, also thanks to the candidature process for UEFA Euro 2032 that is stimulating virtuous paths in various Italian cities, and in reforms on economic-financial sustainability, because the improvement of the critical scenario in the last two sporting seasons is due to the increase in the value of production and is not yet so structured as to secure the accounts of Italian football'.

Increased revenues

In the 2023-24 season, the increase in turnover marked almost all categories: revenues from sponsors and commercial activities exceeded the billion euro mark for the first time in the history of the ReportCalcio (+11.1% compared to 2022-2023, and in the 17 years analysed they more than tripled). Television rights remained essentially stable at 1.5 billion (-0.4%), while ticketing revenues once again touched the historical record for Italian football, approaching half a billion euros (478 million), thanks also to the significant growth in the number of spectators at the stadium in the post COVID-19: considering national championships and European cups, the attendance figure in 2023-2024 touched 21 million, also a record in the history of ReportCalcio, compared to 20.3 in 2022-2023 and 15.8 million pre-COVID-19.

Stadium attendance

The average number of spectators in Serie A alone was the highest since the 1992-1993 season, with 31,172 fans and the best figure in terms of total attendance (over 11.8 million) among those recorded since 1978-1979. Serie A for the second consecutive year has thus surpassed the Spanish La Liga in terms of attendance (14.42 million spectators considering championship, national and European cups), remaining behind only the Bundesliga (14.44 million) and Premier League (18.5 million). The top 10 European Top League clubs with the highest total attendance in the 2023-2024 championship also include three Italian clubs: Inter in second place (1.4 million, only Manchester United did better), AC Milan in fifth (1.3 million) and Roma in seventh (1.2 million).

International Competitiveness

The economic and attendance results are also connected to the growth of the international competitiveness of Italian football. After the three finals of the 2022-2023 European Cups, with the achievement of the historical record in the UEFA Club Ranking and the second place in Europe, in 2023-2024, Italy achieved the first place in the seasonal Ranking, with 21,000 points (ahead of Germany with 19,357 and England with 17,375), thanks also to Atalanta's victory in the Europa League (the first European title in its history and the first success of an Italian club since the UEFA Cup won by Parma in 1999) and Fiorentina's achievement of the final of the Europa Conference League. Thanks to the positive performances of Italian clubs in European cups, (with as many as 6 finals reached in just 3 years) Italy was able to qualify 5 clubs for the 2024-2025 edition of the Champions League, a competition in which Inter reached the final (the second in 3 seasons).

It is no coincidence, therefore, that Italian football is increasingly attracting investment from abroad, with 27 foreign owners in professional football (more than 1 in 4 clubs), of which 16 come from the United States. Between 2011 and 2024, the total investment of foreign ownership (in terms of recapitalisations) amounted to almost EUR 5 billion.

Football as an industry

The total direct revenues of the Italian football industry amount to almost 7 billion, and the tax and social security contribution of the professional sector alone in the last 17 years has been close to 20 billion euro at an aggregate level. For every euro 'invested' by the Italian government in football (considering the contributions paid to the FIGC with the filter of CONI and Sport and Health), the country system has obtained a return in tax and social security terms of 20.5 euros, representing in this sense a formidable multiplier of investments.

Compared to the more than 50,000 clubs and entities present in the country's sports system, the 99 professional football clubs in 2022 alone accounted for more than 70% of the tax contribution produced by the Italian sports sector as a whole, a figure slightly down from 76.9% in 2021, which was the record incidence among those recorded since 2015.

Considering, in addition to the direct value, also the indirect and induced impact produced by football on the entire value activation chain and on the industrial sectors involved, the incidence of this sport on Italian GDP can be estimated at 12.4 billion (a figure that is up by more than one billion compared to 2022-2023), with 141 thousand jobs activated (compared to 129,094 in 2022-2023). In summary, football generates 1.2 per 200 GDP and supports 6 workers for every 1,000 employed.

The main sectors involved in terms of GDP impact are professional football, with 5.2 billion, youth and amateur football and the FIGC (2.9 billion), football betting (1.8 billion), sports newspapers and broadcasters (1.2 billion) and football tourism (1.3 billion). With regard to this last sector, the consumption sustained by the 21.3 million total spectators in the stadiums in 2023-2024 (men's professional football and National teams) has been estimated; it is estimated that 43% of the spectators are Italians coming from outside the region and 25% are foreign fans; the total tourism expenditure amounts to 1.3 billion (+33.2%), divided into costs related to accommodation (314 million), catering (542 million) and other expenses (transport and shopping, with 443 million).

The Sore Notes

However, professional football continues to show a significant imbalance at the economic-financial level. The aggregate loss of the clubs participating in the Serie A, B and C leagues recorded in the 17 years analysed in the Football Report reached EUR 9.3 billion, with a significant impact of the three seasons marked by the COVID-19 (in which a total 'red' of EUR 3.6 billion was recorded, averaging about EUR 3.3 million per day). In the 17-year time horizon of the Football Report, 80% of the budgets were closed with a loss (1,289 budgets in 'red' compared to 1,609 analysed), a figure that rises to 82.6% in the COVID-19 period.

Aggregate debt in the pre-pandemic phase doubled from EUR 2.4 billion in 2007-2008 to EUR 4.8 billion in 2018-2019, and then increased further to EUR 5.5 billion in 2023-2024. In 2007-2008, revenues were able to cover 97% of debt, in 2023-2024 this percentage dropped to 83%.

Sports facilities

In the last 18 years (2007-2024), 226 new stadiums have been built in Europe with an investment of 25.3 billion. The leading nations in terms of new stadiums are Poland and Turkey (over 30 new facilities), ahead of Germany (19) and Russia (16). Italy, with the 6 new stadiums inaugurated in this period (Juventus, Udinese, Frosinone, Albinoleffe, Südtirol and Atalanta) has only intercepted a fraction of this potential, accounting for just 1% of the total investments made in Europe.

The average age of installations in the Peninsula ranges from 56 years in Serie A to 74 in Serie B. The percentage of covered seats in Serie B and C is between 49% and 37%, rising in Serie A to 77%, while in only 22% of the stadiums in the first professional league are installations with renewable energy sources used, and just 8% of the stadiums in Italian professional football are not publicly owned.

Numbers that testify to the need for a new generation of sports facilities, which could bring great added value to the football sector, but also to the entire Country System. In particular, it is estimated that, if finalised, the 31 projects for the construction of new football stadiums in Italy currently in the planning or actual construction phase (820,000 seats) would entail a total investment of 5.1 billion, with an additional impact on GDP of 6.1 billion, mainly in the economic sectors of construction, manufacturing and professional activities, and the creation of approximately 80,000 new jobs. A positive impact is also estimated in terms of a potential increase in the number of spectators at the stadiums (+1.2 million) and direct economic effects (ticketing, tourism expenditure and sponsorships, totalling an increase of 562 million euros).