UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has praised the “extraordinary resilience” of European clubs while stressing the need to continue “working together” after “recovering from unprecedented threats” in the foreword to the governing body’s annual benchmark report.
The review was published - coincidentally - on the same day that A22 Sports Management launched its manifesto for a new Super League, a list of "10 principles" that was abruptly met by scorn by many of European football’s key stakeholders. And while Ceferin did not name the Super League directly, his reference to “unprecedented threats” was clear as he went on to praise fans for “defending proper football and European values.”
He said: “The key is now to remain fair, strict, and consistent. As football navigates through its darkest times, we must remember the lessons we learned during this period. And the one that I keep underlining is the unity of the European football family. We can overcome any threat or challenge by working together and remaining faithful to our beautiful sport.”
Ceferin added “that football is not only standing tall; it is bouncing back” from the pandemic and “thus, football remains very attractive - sponsors, commercial partners, and broadcasters are delighted to be part of the game and were a fundamental part of the revenue growth picture in 2022.”
In another pointed jab at the Super League proposals - which are backed by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus - the Slovenian continued by saying “the open model of European football competitions remains attractive to investors, as witnessed by the record-breaking number of club takeovers and minority investments reached in the last two seasons.”
But not all is rosy as Ceferin reflected on “many” clubs “compromising their economic sustainability in their reckless pursuit of success.” To combat this he said that “UEFA and its member associations must remain vigilant and strictly implement the rules of financial sustainability at European and domestic level.”
New financial fair play regulations are being eased in to limit clubs from spending a set percentage of their total revenue on wages and transfers.
The report also underlines the yawning gap in transfer activity between the Premier League and other top divisions - though it does not point out that the biggest cause is an imbalance in broadcasting revenues.
The Premier League has seen a 10-year growth of almost €2.4bn per season, the report said, with the figure almost doubling between 2020 and 2022. But Italy, France, Germany and Spain remain well below their pre-pandemic levels.
“In England, the pace at which transfer activity has accelerated in 2022 is unprecedented: activity grew by almost 80% year-on-year, and England is the only ‘Big 5’ country that has outpaced its 2019 activity level,” the report says.
“This can either be interpreted as a notable change of behaviour of English clubs, or as a one-off peak allowing clubs to restructure their squads post-pandemic. The situation is much different outside England, with clubs adopting a much more cautious spending approach. In other ‘Big 5’ countries, the transfer activity remains well under pre-pandemic levels.”
In terms of last month’s window, UEFA added: “The winter 2023 transfer market was dominated by English clubs, accounting for an estimated 31% of global transfer activity, 53% of global transfer spending and 8% of global transfer earnings.” Meanwhile “three of the ‘Big 5’ markets saw transfer activity lower than 50% of 2019 levels.”
