PSG financially dominant in France

The authoritative Swiss Ramble takes a look at the accounts of Paris Saint Germain. PSG were acquired in 2011 by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), a subsidiary of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), making the club by far the richest in France and one of the wealthiest in the world. Nasser Al-Khelaifi is the club’s chairman and CEO.

Pre-tax PSG went from a €19m loss to a €40m profit, a €59m improvement. Revenue (DNCG -the organisation that monitors the accounts of French football clubs - definition) rose €54m (11%) from €503m to a record high of €557m, while profit on player sales shot up €132m to €145m. This was partially offset by significant cost growth.

The €557m revenue is more than five times as much as €101m reported in 2011, i.e. before the QSI acquisition. Majority of the increase has come from commercial €343m, but also good growth in broadcasting €83m and gate receipts €30m.

Looked at another way, PSG alone generated around a third of total revenue in Ligue 1 – as much as the 14 clubs with the lowest revenue combined. Perhaps more tellingly, their revenue was €125m more than Lyon, Marseille and Monaco put together.

The main driver of PSG's €54m revenue growth was other commercial income, which rose €55m (30%) from €184m to €239m, though sponsors and advertising dipped €12m (8%) from €154m to €142m. Broadcasting was up €6m (5%) to €128m, while gate receipts were €6m (14%) higher at €48m.

Average attendance of 46,935 was the highest in France, but only just above Marseille 46,738 & Lyon 46,005. The sizeable revenue difference was mainly due to higher prices in Paris, especially corporates. Included a club record 35,700 season ticket holders (up from 8,500 in 2011).

PSG were the most profitable club in France with €40m profit before tax, more than twice as much as the closest challenger Angers €17m, followed by Lyon €12m. 15 out of 20 Ligue 1 clubs made a profit, but large losses posted by Lille €142m, Marseille €78m & Bordeaux €21m.

PSG benefited from €145m profit on player sales, including Moura, Matuidi, Aurier, Pastore and Augustin. Even this impressive figure was dwarfed by Monaco’s extraordinary €316m profit, as they sold many of their title-winning team. Excluding this, PSG loss would have been €106m. Traditionally PSG have made very little money from player sales. In fact, the 2018 €145m profit is more than twice the previous nine seasons combined. However, this could become increasingly important to help meet FFP, as seen by last summer’s sales of Guedes, Berchiche and Edouard.

In 2017/18 PSG earned €62m for reaching the Champions League last 16, €7m better than the previous season. PSG have earned almost €300m from Europe in the last five years, which is 3rd highest of all clubs, only behind Juventus €406m & Real Madrid €360m.

Following a dip in 2017, PSG's wage bill rose by €60m (22%) from €272m to €332m in 2018, increasing wages to turnover ratio from 54% to 60%, mainly due to arrival of Neymar and Mbappé. Interestingly, revenue and wage growth over last 3 years are almost identical at around €75m.

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The Political Economy of Football V2

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