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The Benfica SAD published on Wednesday the report and the accounts for the 2019/20 financial year, with a positive result of 41.7 million euros, the second best in history. Interviewed by the club’s official website, Domingos Soares de Oliveira, CEO and head of the financial area, admitted that the 120 million euros invested with the sale of João Félix to Atlético de Madrid represented an important part of this result.
«The information is positive in terms of the main indicators, although it is an exercise that is highly affected by the Covid-19 issue and the fact that we had to stop our activities for several months. The Company’s result is close to 42 million euros, the second best in the history of Benfica SAD. The second important aspect to highlight is the growth in income with a value close to 294 million euros, naturally also highly influenced by the component of sales of athletes, in particular João Félix. These are the two most positive indicators, “he began by explaining, and then highlighting what he considers another positive point:” The confirmation of a trend that we have already observed for several years, which is the reduction of liabilities and indebtedness, “he explained.
On the contrary, the leader detailed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the embodied stories.
“The least positive thing about these accounts is that, whether in terms of television rights or in terms of UEFA awards, commercialization, sponsorships, or in terms of ticket sales, there is a reduction in practically all of these items. On the one hand, influenced – in the case of European competitions – by our less good sports performance, compared to what we had in 2018/19; and, on the other hand, the fact that we have stopped the competition for almost four months. For example, in the 2019/20 accounts we were only able to recognize those 14 league games, those 14 games that were played through July 30. The remaining three games are no longer counted for this exercise.
– Due to the pandemic here we had two impacts: one that we will never be able to measure, which is on the sports side, that is, what would have happened to Benfica if we had not had the pandemic. How did the team adapt to the fact that we were playing without an audience? Basically, something that is the essence of football has been lost … As for the much more economic and financial component, basically we have an impact in all aspects, except ticket, as I said, because we do not play ticket games. We point out, in these accounts, that the total impact of Covid-19 in the 2019/20 financial year is just over 12 million euros. Without Covid-19, we would probably have had income, only from SAD, exceeding 300 million euros ”.
