LaLiga clubs skyrocket their debt above US$6.1 billion

The clubs that make up the Spanish LaLiga They closed the 2022-2023 season with a gross consolidated financial debt of US$6.12 billion31.7% more than the previous year, according to the Financial Economic Report 2022-2023 prepared by the employer.

The data from last season almost triples the debt records of the 2017-2018 academic yearwhen the consolidated gross financial debt was set at US$2,119 million.

The competition chaired by Javier Tebas explains that, in recent years, the profile or the composition of debt varied radically“fundamentally derived from the equally substantial change of the object to be financed, in this case the main infrastructures of the clubs, that is, the stadiums and sports cities, as well as other investments for growth.”

In fact, with the application of the Impulso Plan, derived from LaLiga’s agreement with the CVC fund for the transfer of part of the audiovisual rights of the Spanish domestic competition, the clubs have added a new line of financing to their projects. Specific, This line of capital injection translated into a debt of US$665 million in 2021-2022 and US$947 million in 2022-2023.

Added to the previous one debts with clubs for player transfers, which remained at US$793 million in 2022-2023, 20.3% above the data from the previous year, although still far from the almost US$1,392 million in 2019-2020 or the US$1,045 million in 2018-2019. In fact, LaLiga positioned itself as the most austere competition of Europe’s big five in terms of transactions during the winter market, investing US$91 million.

The employers add irtems, other financial debts, debts with group companies and debts with credit institutions to calculate the gross debt. Although it does not detail the nature of any of these, the first remains the main source of debt for the clubs, with US$32,290 million in 2022-2023being the first time in the historical series that the barrier of US$3,220 million has been exceeded.

Their debts increased

For their part, the clubs in the competition have increased their debts with group companies to US$139 million in 2022-2023, compared to just over US$64 million in the previous year and US$153 million in 2018-2019. the largest historical record. Finally, The teams have amortized the outstanding capital with the banks, going from US$1,026 million in 2021-2022 to US$945 million in 2022-2023.

Although the competition does not break down the nature of debt by club, it highlights that FC Barcelona is the only team that has increased its gross debt. The team chaired by Joan Laporta increased it by US$900 million due to the financing for Espai Barça: In April 2023, Barcelona closed the placement of US$1,605 million in corporate bonds to finance its project, although it has finally cut the budget up to US$996 million.

The previous gross debt has been, in part, offset by the application of US$712 million of cash and equivalentsthat is, accumulated surplus treasury from past years, as well as the capital increases disbursed, which amount to US$74 million, which served as a source of financing and in this way have alleviated the pressure on the increase in gross debt,” explains LaLiga .}

Likeness

To the above are added US$726 million of financial assets with clubs for player transfers, both short and long term, and US$763 million as Other short-term financial assets, which, subtracted from the previous gross debt, gives a consolidated net financial debt of US$3,566 millionthe largest in the historical series.

The income with which LaLiga clubs closed the 2022-2023 season is similar to their debt. Specifically, the First Division teams ended the last campaign by increasing their recurring income by 15%, reaching almost 5,000 million euros. Specific, Aggregate turnover rose to 4,889.6 million euros.

The amount skyrockets to US$6,103 million euros when including those derived from extraordinary corporate operations. In this case, the records also represent an increase of 15% year-on-year.

The data achieved in 2022-2023 was achieved thanks to the record in commercial revenues, which increased by 28.6% “due to improvements in commercial exploitation, as well as the growth in revenues from matchday thanks to the historical record of attendance at stadiums,” explains LaLiga in the letter. Specifically, revenue on match days increased by 36.9%.