Soccer-Europe's leading clubs face 20-25% drop in enterprise values-study

KPMG's forecast of the devaluation of the football sector at the top end of the market is between 20% and 25%, when compared with our recently published results of clubs' EV as of Jan. 1 2020," KPMG's global head of sports Andrea Sartori said in a statement.

Europe's top clubs could take a 20-25% hit to their enterprise values (EV) because of the "unprecedented crisis" caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a study https://footballbenchmark.com/library/how_much_has_covid_19_degraded_the_value_of_europe_s_elite  conducted by KPMG has revealed. The study took into account players' devaluation as well as the performance of the largest listed teams in recent months and compared it with KPMG's data collected earlier in the year.

"... KPMG's forecast of the devaluation of the football sector at the top end of the market is between 20% and 25% when compared with our recently published results of clubs' EV as of Jan. 1 2020," KPMG's global head of sports Andrea Sartori said in a statement. "Having said that... peak devaluations for individual clubs can range from 15% up to 30%. This depends on the strength of a particular club's balance sheet, level of debt, the structure of revenue mix, and dependence on player trading activities.

"Obviously, each club's situation and EV impact will need to be assessed individually upon the availability of their 2019-2020 financial statements." The study estimated that the squad value of French champions Paris St Germain could drop by 25.4% after Ligue 1 was canceled in April. That figure would have been around 18% if top flight action had returned from its enforced break.

The other four of Europe's "Big Five" leagues England, Spain, Germany, and Italy have all resumed their seasons but matches are being held without fans present in stadiums. Spanish giants Barcelona's squad value could fall from an estimated 1,136 million euros ($1.28 billion) in February to 903 million euros down 20.5% the study added.

Manchester United's squad value could drop by 13.8% while that of Bayern Munich faces a fall of 15.8%. ($1 = 0.8859 euros)

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