Spanish La Liga posts record financial figures
Spain’s football league, La Liga, announced on Thursday that their clubs had posted a record revenue of 4.48 billion euros (3.86 billion pounds) for the 2017/2018 season.
The number marks a 20.6 per cent growth from the previous record of 3.6 billion euros, and therefore, becomes the best in the competition’s history.
Crucially, it has not been bloated by a new TV deal given that the figures come from the second of a three-year domestic cycle on audio-visual rights.
This will come up for renewal in the 2019/2020 season.
The current figure of audio-visual turnover surpassed the 1.5 billion euro mark for the first time in this set of financial results.
Commercial revenue has been up 34.1 per cent with an 838 million euro turnover, while revenue from player transfers is up 104.3 billion euros to 1.02 billion euros.
They are the two main contributors to the league’s strong annual growth, with higher sums forecast next year.
La Liga’s professional structure means it produces an impact on Spain’s national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) equivalent to almost 1.4 per cent.
It employs 185, 000 people directly and indirectly, with a tax contribution of more than four billion euros per year.