European football once again highlights the enormous economic gap between its leading competitions. The Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1 generated more than €13.2 billion combined during the 2024-25 season, according to Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance 2026. The difference between the three leagues is particularly significant: while the English competition surpassed €8 billion, the Italian league barely reached €3 billion and the French competition stood slightly above €2.1 billion. All three leagues begin the 2026-27 season this Friday with very different business models.
The scale of this gap is also evident when looking at average revenue per club. Premier League teams recorded average revenue of €405 million, compared with €150 million for Serie A and €120 million for Ligue 1. This is not simply a difference in size, but also reflects each competition’s ability to turn broadcasting rights, commercial activity and the matchday experience into revenue. In this context, television rights remain one of the main engines of professional football in Europe, although each market’s development is shaped by very different circumstances.
Broadcasting rights highlight the gap between the three leagues
Broadcasting rights were the main source of revenue for the Premier League and Serie A during the season analyzed. The English competition generated €4.003 billion through this channel, while the Italian league reached €1.507 billion. The difference helps explain part of the enormous gap between the two leagues and reflects the international value that the Premier League product has built, allowing it to generate broadcasting revenue far above that of its European competitors. In Italy, the figure could also change in the coming years amid interest in exploring the sale of a minority stake of up to 49.9% in its broadcasting rights to investment funds through a multi-year agreement.
The situation in France is considerably different. Ligue 1 generated just €286 million from broadcasting rights, amid the crisis that has affected this market since its split with Mediapro in 2021. Since then, the competition has gone through different operators, including Amazon, Canal+ and DAZN, while seeking to stabilize a key source of revenue for its clubs. The creation of its own OTT platform is also part of this search for alternatives, in a market where the value of television rights remains far below that of England and Italy.
Commercial business and ‘matchday’ revenue widen the gap
Commercial activity represents another key component of the three competitions’ accounts. The Premier League is approaching €3 billion in annual revenue from this area, while Serie A reaches €1.048 billion and Ligue 1 €734 million. In all three cases, commercial revenue accounts for approximately 35% of total business, although the English competition is looking to expand this area even further. Its new commercial plan includes centralizing a significant portion of stadium advertising sales and increasing the number of top-tier global partners, a strategy that could generate up to an additional €850 million.
This push takes on particular relevance with the disappearance of betting company sponsors from the front of Premier League clubs’ shirts from the 2026-27 season. The change ends more than two decades of involvement from the sector and represents an estimated impact of around £100 million, approximately €115 million, for English football. Added to this is the importance of ‘matchday’ revenue, which generated €1.24 billion in the United Kingdom, €452 million in Italy and €286 million in France. The in-person experience therefore remains significant: in Italy, for example, Serie A recorded an average stadium occupancy of more than 87% during the first 11 rounds of the 2025-26 season, while in the United Kingdom, fan spending on Premier League and Women’s Super League matchdays reached €2.6 billion.
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