UEFA must return a total of 575 million to the networks who own the rights of the Champions League and Europa League due to the reduction of matches due to the coronavirus pandemic, as reported on Tuesday by the European Club Association (ECA).
The stoppage caused by the virus since March and which caused UEFA to reorganize its club competitions for the month of August and in 'Final 8' formats, which reduced the number of meetings to be broadcast and now obliges the agency to return part of the money it receives and that later it distributes between the teams, which supposes to them a new financial setback.
“All that money is not going to be distributed”, The president of the ECA, Andrea Agnelli, stressed this Tuesday during the telematic assembly of the association, in which he reiterated that European clubs would lose about 4,000 million in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons due to the pandemic.
The also president of Juventus pointed out that closed-door games have affected ticket sales revenue and less money is also expected from sponsorships and the transfer market, so he predicts an upcoming season as “very, very challenging both on and off the pitch.”
Under the original agreement, the UEFA would have earned 3,250 million euros in the last season, with 2,550 to distribute among the participating teams in both competitions, although it is not clear if the aforementioned 575 would be retained to the clubs or if UEFA would also suffer losses.
“What this pandemic and this crisis shows us and brings us is one of the elements that I have emphasized since the first day of my presidency of the ECA and that is the business risk of the industry falls on the clubs “, Agnelli remarked in statements collected on the association's website.
The leader recalled that ticket sales are something that “connects everyone, be it an elite club, medium or small”, and “the vast majority” of European teams have been damaged byhear this crisis. “My hope is that we come together collectively, as responsible individuals, each of us as clubs, so that we can present our positions, with our shareholders, with a united voice,” he said.