UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, has reported record-breaking revenues for the 2024-25 financial year. The total income surpassed €5 billion ($5.9 billion), marking a historic high for a year without the lucrative European Championships national teams tournament.
The complete sum of €5.014 billion represents an unprecedented total for a non-European Championship year. This figure was released in UEFA's 2024-25 financial report, audited by Deloitte, and shows an increase of €737 million from the previous year when excluding revenues from the 2024 men's Euros held in Germany.
However, despite this impressive revenue growth, UEFA reported an overall loss of €46.2 million for that fiscal year.
Revenue breakdown
A significant portion of last year's revenues - approximately €4.4 billion - was generated from UEFA's three main men's club competitions: Champions League (top-tier), Europa League (second-tier), and Conference League (third-tier). This figure marks a substantial increase of €690 million compared to 2023-24. The new competition format introduced in 2024-25 contributed to this surge by incorporating more teams and games across all three competitions. As a result of increased revenue generation, UEFA distributed around €3.4 billion to clubs – up by about €400 million on a yearly basis.
In an overview of the different revenue sectors, UEFA's financial report revealed a diverse income stream. The largest contributor was media rights sales, which brought in a substantial €4.06 billion. This was followed by commercial rights exploitation, contributing approximately €787 million to the total revenue. Lastly, ticketing and hospitality revenue also played a significant role in UEFA's earnings for the year with an income of around €100 million.
These figures were slightly lower than those recorded during the Euro-centric fiscal period due to exclusionary factors related to Euro-specific income streams such as ticket sales and broadcasting rights.
Future projections and budgeting
Looking ahead, UEFA is currently selling its men's club competition media rights for the next cycle (2027-31) and has already announced deals in each of the 'big five' European markets – the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France.
UEFA also presented a budget for the 2026-27 financial year – the final year of the current men's club competition broadcast cycle. The governing body expects to generate €5.1 billion in revenues across that period. Of this income, UEFA plans to distribute 78% to teams competing in its pan-continental competitions. An additional €455 million is earmarked for solidarity payments. Despite these optimistic projections, UEFA has budgeted a loss of €62 million for next season.
The revenue from last season's UEFA Women's Champions League was reported at €19.3 million - up from €18.9 million on a yearly basis. However, it should be noted that this figure represents only a small fraction of total income generated by all UEFA competitions combined. Despite some losses incurred during non-Euros years and challenges posed by new formats and structures within club competitions; UEFA continues to demonstrate robust financial performance with promising prospects for future growth.
