European football clubs have been given a stark assessment of the game's finances with billions in expected revenue losses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It has also been confirmed by the European Club Association chairman, Andrea Agnelli, that €575 million in the form of a rebate has been given to Champions League and Europa League broadcasters following the disruption to the tournaments because of the pandemic.
Agnelli, who is also the chairman of Juventus, opened the ECA's general assembly which was held by video conference call on Tuesday.
"We have seen very important rebates to the principal broadcasters both at domestic level and at international level," said Agnelli.
"We have seen a 330 million pound rebate in the Premier League, we have seen a downturn in the Bundesliga domestic rights of about 200 million euros and we are in the process of finalising the account with UEFA with a reduction of around 575 million euros for the international club competitions, and that is all money that is not going to be distributed.
"We (European clubs) are looking at a revenue decrease of approximately 4 billion euros in the next two years."
🗣️ ECA Chairman Andrea Agnelli addresses members at the 24th #ECAGeneralAssembly 👇 pic.twitter.com/G7pbgmruKn
— ECA (@ECAEurope) September 8, 2020
The disruptions to the game have also meant that plans to change the formats of UEFA's club competitions have been put on hold.
Among suggested reforms was the creation of a promotion and relegation system, with the top 24 teams in the Champions League gaining automatic qualification for the next year’s competition, something that would favour the elite clubs around the continent and that Agnelli was keen to push on with.
"When we met in Geneva last year following the extraordinary general assembly of Malta, that was meant to be the very first step of a long consultation process that should have led us to define what we actually wanted football to look like in 2024, which is the first year of the new international match calendar, and what kind of competitions we wanted," he said.
"In my opinion, many of the aspects that were on the table in September 2019 are still valid, but I still think we are in the middle of crisis management, and that crisis management is not over yet.
"We will need to stall before we can properly address what we want to have in the future, we need to have a fairly consistent understanding of what the significance at the economic level (of the pandemic) has been for clubs."
