Off The Pitch declares Italian top club the pinnacle of financial sustainability in European football

Football clubs are spending money on transfers and wages like never before to stay competitive. With wealthy US owners, MCOs and state-funded clubs entering football, the gap between the very rich and the rest is widening, and more and more clubs are spending beyond their means to keep abreast.

So it is more relevant than ever for clubs to be able to adapt to the current landscape and develop and adopt healthy long-term business strategies - in short, try to level the playing field by taking smarter decisions. 

This is why Off The Pitch has decided to crown the most financially-sustainable clubs in Europe by applying a weighted model of EBITDA margin, return-on-assets (excluding exceptional income) and equity ratio to 245 clubs across European football. Metrics are proportional to make sure size deficiencies are offset. Clubs who include transfer revenue in total turnover have been excluded, as this would inflate EBITDA margins. Teams relegated in the 2021/22 season will have their overall weighted score cut slightly, as financial sustainability in football has to go hand in hand with performance on the pitch.

Because we want to celebrate clubs maintaining persistent financial sustainability, this analysis will look at the last three years of annual accounts - 2019/20, 2020/21 and the 2021/22 seasons. 

In this way, we are mitigating abnormal financial performances in one season – otherwise a small club entering European football one year and boosting its broadcast income massively would have too big an advantage. 

Who is the most financially-sustainable club?

A familiar face takes the top spot. Italian top club Atalanta, who in February 2022 were taken over by a group of investors spearheaded by Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca, have previously been among the most sustainable clubs in earlier Off The Pitch rankings. 

While most other Italian clubs have struggled in the last three years, the small Bergamo club have taken the world of football by storm. Getting promoted at the start of the last decade after the return of Antonio Percassi as president of Atalanta, the club finished in the bottom half in their first five seasons in Serie A. 

The turnaround began in earnest when current manager Gian Piero Gasperini took the helm in 2016 and led it to fourth place in his first season, qualifying the team for a spot in European competition for the first time in 26 years.

Since then, The Goddess have continually impressed, and in doing that have accumulated profits of €229 million over the past five years, having recently published another surplus of €16.7 million, which only covered six months.

With an average EBIDTA margin of 22 per cent over the last three years analysed, Atalanta have managed to maintain a sustainable core business despite the financial nightmare the European football industry experienced with Covid-19.

Looking at the single biggest expense in all football clubs, wages, Atalanta have since 2016 punched above their weight year after year with total wage bills below  €100 million – typically only the seventh highest in Italy. 

However, for the first time under Gasperini, Atalanta missed out on playing European football in the just-finished season 2022/23 due to a disappointing eighth place in the Serie A in 2021/2022. Not getting UEFA broadcast money in 2022/23 would lead to a significant decrease in turnover meaning a weaker EBITDA margin. 

Very close to Atalanta in the ranking is the current 11th consecutive Bundesliga winner, Bayern München.

The German giant’s consistent performance on the pitch translates into impressive financial results, looking at the key ratios analysed. In particular, their equity ratio of 70.9 per cent stands out from the rest of the 245 clubs, which essentially means the side primarily fund asset requirements with a minimal amount of debt.

Two big Premier League clubs are also featured on the list - Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. 

Among the top ten clubs, Tottenham have the highest average EBITDA margin of 27.3 per cent. That said, Tottenham also have the lowest average return-on-assets with a negative score of 1.2 per cent due to massive pre-tax losses in the three-year period analysed, totalling £210 million.

Manchester City are the other club on the list to run a negative average return-on-assets. 

Scandinavian clubs dominate the list

Looking further down the list, Bodø/Glimt, Malmö FF, Molde FK, Djurgårdens IF and AGF - Aarhus joins the big European clubs in a close top-ten battle. The common ground for these Scandinavian clubs has been their ability to fight for the top spots or even the title in the last three years. 

The Norwegian Eliteserien has seen Bodø/Glimt and Molde FK as the top two teams in the last three years, while in the Swedish Allsvenskan, Malmö FF and Djursgårdens IF have been among the top teams in recent years. 

In a European context, these clubs have small income figures, so will see a huge jump in turnover when competing in European tournaments. Bodø/Glimt in particular, being a relatively new face on the European scene, have in the past three years been creating some outstanding results along the way. In the top 10 ranking, Bodø/Glimt are the best performer looking at return-on-assets. 

Another familiar face on the list is Spanish side SD Eibar, who also took 10th place in 2021. Even though the club are struggling in the Spanish second tier, Eibar are a great example of a club that have managed to adapt their finances to life in LaLiga 2. 

Common ground for most of the top-ten clubs is consistent performances on the pitch without spending beyond their means on player wages, which helps maintain a healthy core business as presented in the EBITDA margin. 

Furthermore, most of these clubs have a healthy capital structure. And finally, the Scandinavian clubs in particular are revealed to have a propensity to be well-run when looking at how efficiently a club uses assets it owns to generate profits - return-on-assets. 

For those wondering, Oxford United perform the worst based on these selected key ratios.