Richest football teams in Central and Eastern Europe

The top ten football championships in Central and Eastern Europe yielded some €900 million in the 2007-2008 season, of which the revenues of Romanian clubs exceeded €120 million.

The amount is only half of the revenues made by Russian teams, but at the same level as clubs in Poland and the Czech Republic.

An in-depth analysis made by Business Standard focused on the revenues of football clubs in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and Russia. Revenues from football player transfers, sponsorships, ticket sales, TV broadcast sales and premiums from European competitions were all considered.

The gathered data shows that, in spite of massive investments made in previous years, Central and Eastern European soccer is still far from that in Western Europe, in terms of business. Revenues made by all 10 countries included in the analysis do not make up even half of the revenues registered by British football teams, whose income totaled €2.4 billion, according to a survey by Deloitte consulting company. In Romania, League 1 teams made some €120 million in revenues, of which €30 million were TV broadcast rights, €10 million were UEFA competition premiums, and player transfers some €35 million. The rest comes from advertising contracts, ticket sales, and marketing operations.

On the local market, the top three teams in terms of turnover are Steaua Bucharest, one of the most renowned clubs in Romania, with business nearing €20 million, CFR Cluj, with €16 million in turnover, and Dinamo Bucharest. Club officials decline to provide figures for the 2007-2008 season. However, Dinamo made some €5.8 million turnover in 2007, according to data provided by the Trade Registrer Office (ONRC).

Business Standard