[ad_1]
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Around 100 million euros less: FC Bayern will also suffer significant and painful losses in the crown crisis due to lack of income from home games. CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge sees the future of football as a whole at risk.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has been warning for weeks, now it has become clear for the first time. “I’m not ruling out,” he said, “that we lose for the first time in my 19 years as CEO.” Lost? The great and wealthy FC Bayern Munich? Yes! The industry leader was also hit hard by the crown crisis. Salaries would be paid again “normally”, Rummenigge reported in “Bild am Sonntag”, but stressed: “We will have to fight in this exercise.” Rummenigge believes this applies even more to other Bundesliga clubs. According to rumors, “some clubs in Germany are already at risk of bankruptcy.”
If the season that has just started has to be interrupted due to a second wave, “several Bundesliga clubs would not survive,” predicted and emphasized the Munich CEO: “Several!” “I could not imagine,” he added skeptically, “that the Bundesliga could continue to exist in its current form in the future.”
Rummenigge’s earnings warning for FC Bayern München AG comes as no surprise, it also lacks revenue from games at the Allianz Arena. The president of the club, Herbert Hainer, calculated days ago that “we lack four million per home game for ticket sales and catering.” No spectators means: “Significantly less merchandise sales because people don’t buy shirts if they aren’t allowed to go to the stadium. Add it all up and we’re £ 100 million short.” Rummenigge confirmed this figure.
“It’s all very sad”
In fiscal year 2018/2019, the entire group achieved a record profit of € 52.5 million on sales of € 750.4 million. The crisis of the crown has changed everything, also for Munich: this summer only large investments were made in Leroy Sane (50 million euros of transfer), for the other six incorporations Marc Roca, Bouna Sarr, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting , Douglas Costa, Alexander Nübel and Tanguy Nianzou together paid less than 20 million euros. And they said bluntly to David Alaba: You are asking for too much money.
But the Champions League winner is not alone with his problems. In its annual report published on its homepage, Borussia Dortmund assumes, unsurprisingly, “that the development of earnings in the 2020/21 season will be seriously affected” by the effects of the pandemic. Due to “high planning uncertainty” in all revenue areas, BVB calculates an annual deficit of 70 to 75 million euros. More recently, the black and yellow group had reported a loss of “only” just under € 44 million.
According to Rummenigge, “all clubs in Europe lose between 50 and 200 million euros in a season that they have to play without spectators.” And how long can a football club last, “you can count it on five fingers.” Therefore, Rummenigge is not very confident about the future: “The future of football really lies on clay feet. I don’t know how long football can last. It’s all very sad.”
