CEO's Report

2019/20 was the very definition of “a game of two halves”. As the half time whistle blew, in early March, the world entered the COVID-19 era, as the World Health Organization confirmed the rapidly spreading virus had become a pandemic. This had a seismic impact on societies and economies – sending shockwaves through many industries, including football.

When we kicked off the 2019/20 season, a time when the world still seemed relatively normal back in September 2019, ECA members elected a new ECA Executive Board with a mandate for its first ever 4-year membership cycle. The Board quickly developed and put into place a strategic programme to deliver the Association’s goals:

• Building the Future of Club Football:
  fostering the development of competitions and calendars to deliver more sustainable club football,
  and to focus more on the technical and technological aspects of the game.
  

• Putting ECA at the Heart of Decisions:
  developing institutional relations to work effectively with football stakeholders to achieve ECA’s objectives.
  

• Transforming the Commercial Model:
  evolving new strategies, operating and governance models for how the club game is commercialised.
  

• Guiding Policy, Regulatory and Financial Matters:
  shaping a regulatory environment where European clubs can thrive, based on stability, transparency
  and good governance.
  

• Driving Growth and Development:
  maintaining focus on key development areas of the game for club sustainability, including
  youth training, the women’s game and social impact.
  

• Evolving ECA for the Next Decade:
  ensuring the Association continues to deliver increasing strength of internal governance,
  membership engagement, internal structure and capabilities.

Focusing on these six goals has and will continue to orientate the work of ECA towards securing successful European club football for the next decade and beyond. These goals are built off our fundamental purpose of Placing Clubs at the Heart of Football. A purpose we can only achieve by working collectively - each and every one of ECA’s 246 member clubs - together as friends off the pitch to drive and inspire the development of the game.

As you progress through this Annual Report, you’ll notice the chapters are dedicated to each of the goals, detailing the activities of the respective work streams governed by the Board.

With the evident impacts the pandemic would have on European club football, in March, our strategic programme pivoted to a so-called ‘Emergency Phase’. Most of the work for the remainder of the season was then channelled towards managing and mitigating theses disruptive impacts, safeguarding the needs of clubs whist balancing the interests of all stakeholders affected.

The collaboration across football allowed us to: foster the development of new schedules, formats and protocols to promote the completion of domestic and European competitions; understand the potential financial impacts and agree liquidity, regulatory and commercial mechanisms to address these impacts; reach pragmatic conclusions on solutions for player contracts and transfer windows; and to take cautious but safe and deliberate steps to promote the return to play and subsequently return of fans to stadia.

The economic impact of COVID-19 is unavoidable with club finances remaining in turmoil following the continued loss of matchday income and other affected income streams. In an analysis we carried out with PwC early in summer, we estimated the overall loss for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons across clubs in the top divisions of Europe at €4bn in revenue excluding transfer impacts. Sadly, as the crisis has continued, that initial estimate now looks optimistic and the number is likely to be in excess of €5bn, and well over €6bn on bottom line profits. The extent of the impact on clubs was supported by FIFA’s analysis executed to inform its COVID-19 Relief Plan, in which it stated that 90% of the financial impact is at club level, where most of the costs also sit. 

Though recent years have been a time of growth for the football industry, what we have experienced this year is how quickly that can be reversed. The way football and its business models are structured is not yet sufficiently geared for the sustainability we need in the future.

The increased professionalisation and sustainable development of clubs is paramount for the future of the game. That’s why we, the ECA Administration, are also working to ensure that we are consistently delivering value to our members through the services we provide. We have made a growing suite of member offerings available over the past season as we invest in a service-driven approach based on your needs – which you have shared with us in a series of surveys. We want to connect you with the best knowledge and expertise out there, which we have done through numerous activities this year: a multi-market research study on fandom called Fan of the Future: Defining Modern Football Fandom; best practice guidelines on return to play and return of fans; a partnership with leading online platform for player transfers, TransferRoom; the amplification of information and platforms from FIFA and UEFA to deliver more transparency and data on legal and commercial matters; and through the continuation of the ECA Club Management Programme. Over the next season, we will look to enhance our services further – pivoting much of our offering to digital so we can continue to facilitate knowledge sharing through more virtual means as we unfortunately remain physically distant.  

COVID-19 has been a harsh wake up call for football, but a wake up call nonetheless. Lives, competitions, finances and priorities have been turned upside down in unimaginable ways. But we are now learning to live in a new normal; to live in a world with COVID-19 and the possibilities of future COVID-19s. One could ask for no clearer evidence than this pandemic that clubs will always bear the lion’s share of the risks and the costs of delivering the world’s beautiful game.

Please know that we will never tire of working to evolve the relationships, structures and governance of the industry to ensure that ECA truly Places Clubs at the Heart of Football. I, along with the ECA Administration, am looking forward to working closely with you over the coming years and wish you all strength and resolve for the season ahead.

Charlie Marshall

ECA Chief Executive Officer