Flamengo (R$ 1,177 million), Palmeiras (R$ 867 million), Corinthians (R$ 777 million), São Paulo (R$ 661 million) and Internacional (R$ 467 million) are the five clubs with the highest revenue in the 2022 season of Brazilian football and centralize 49% of the total raised by the 30 clubs in the A and B series of the Brasileirão. This is one of the main data pointed out in the analysis carried out by the EY consultancy, which aimed to present the economic scenario and the financial performance of Brazilian clubs last year. These values are reflected in the investment made by clubs in reinforcements. Flamengo leads with R$ 231 million in reinforcements, with Atlético-MG (R$ 148 million) and Palmeiras (R$ 130 million) closing the Top-3. The club from Minas Gerais, in this list, draws attention because, as we will see below, despite the high revenue, it spent more than it collected in 2022. The survey of the finances of the clubs was based on the financial statements on official websites and includes the main sources of income, costs and expenses and indebtedness. Chapecoense, CRB, CSA, Ituano, Juventude, Londrina, Náutico, Novorizontino, Sampaio Correia and Tombense had not published their financial statements until the beginning of the study and, therefore, were not approached. “We cannot forget Atlético-MG among these teams that stand out at the top”, emphasizes Pedro Daniel, Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment at EY Brasil. “The club from Minas Gerais is among the first in revenues from TV and awards, as well as from commercials, and is only surpassed by Internacional in general because the club from Rio Grande do Sul had a great performance in revenues related to the sale of players”, he comments. “We have a good perspective of creating a League, but it is necessary to implement the Financial Fair Play in Brazil, so that this football industry is regulated. These two measures would accelerate the professionalization of Brazilian football”, he adds. Total revenue, including broadcasting rights, player transfers, advertising, matchday (earnings from tickets, food and beverages and club licensed products, among others), social club and amateur sports, in addition to “other revenue” of Brazilian clubs in 2022 reached BRL 8.1 billion, 9% higher than that accounted for in 2021. Net debt reached BRL 11.3 billion. The return of the public to the stadiums, normalized last year, caused matchday revenue to return to previous levels. Série A had the third highest average attendance in the history of the competition, with around 21,646 fans in Brazilian stadiums – there were more than 13.5 million fans. The income of the clubs in the three national competitions (Brasileirão Série A, Série B and the Copa do Brasil) was close to half a billion reais. As has been the case since 2019, Flamengo is at the top of the Total Revenue ranking, and in 2022 the club broke the record for revenue presented by a club in Brazil. In broadcasting rights and in prizes, the club raised R$ 496 million, an amount leveraged by the conquests of the Copa do Brasil and Libertadores. Incidentally, the report highlights that, in the last five years, Flamengo and Palmeiras have concentrated 10 of the 15 main titles played in Brazilian football – Série A, Libertadores and Copa do Brasil. In the same period, only 11 teams were among the top five in Série A, and again Flamengo and Palmeiras, alongside Atlético-MG, were the only ones to lift the trophy. São Paulo was the club that recorded the highest amount of revenue from player transfers – R$ 229 million. It is because of this item that, in the overall sum of revenues, Internacional surpasses Atlético-MG – R$ 173 million x R$ 88 million. This high value was obtained in the negotiation of 33 players, highlighting the sale of Yuri Alberto to Zenit, from Russia, for 25 million euros. When it comes to expenses, the report points out that personnel represented, on average, 49% of the total of Brazilian clubs. Fluminense was the one from Série A that had the highest proportion, with 72%. When we compare the total expenses with personnel with the total revenue of each club, Tricolor appears in the Top-10, in ninth place, but it is Atlético-MG, in fourth, that presents the greatest commitment among the first division clubs. , with 68%. In the other debt items, there was an increase in all of them: 8% in Tax Debts, 19% in Loans and 9% in Net Debt. Atlético-MG leads in this last aspect, with a debt of R$ 1.571 billion, which represents 15% of the total value of the clubs. Cruzeiro and Botafogo were the other two with a net debt of more than R$1 billion. The three, plus Corinthians and Vasco, represent 48% of the total net debt of all clubs in 2022. When comparing this debt with total revenue, half of the analyzed clubs have an index below one. That is, these clubs would need less than a year of revenue to settle their debts. At the top of this table is Guarani, with an index of 8.49, which means that debts exceed annual revenues by more than 8 times. Botafogo (6.38) and Cruzeiro (6.25) are the only ones to have an index above 6. At the end of the table, Cuiabá (0.02), Fortaleza (0.12), Ceará (0.15) and Flamengo (0.22) are the Serie A teams with the best rates. For Pedro Daniel, the transformation of Brazilian clubs into SAFs is a positive alternative. “We are going to a second cycle of SAFs, different from the first that included teams in need of conversion, such as Cruzeiro, Botafogo and Vasco”, he analyzes. “They were financially insolvent clubs, more open to this type of equity (shareholding), but now the model will be different. There was this learning and the clubs are currently structuring themselves for this transition. Some even without the need to sell more than 50% of their shares. Others are including it in their plans, such as Atlético-MG. Each one will have their own reality, there is no rule, but the movement of the clubs is more mature to make this conversion”, completes the executive director of EY Brasil. * Sergio du Bocage is host of No Mundo da Bola, on TV Brasil
Agência Brasil
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