Turkish football league suffers €263M losses: UEFA

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Turkey's top-tier football division Süper Lig suffered a financial loss of €263 million ($291 million) in 2018 due to Turkish lira's "sharp depreciation" against Euro and US dollars, the European football's governing body said.

In the 11the European Club Footballing Landscape report published on Jan. 16, UEFA provided detailed information and data on the European club's financial performances in 2018 financial year.

"The relatively high financing costs of Turkish and Italian clubs continue to absorb a sizeable percentage of club revenues, with total net non-operating costs equivalent to 29 pct and 7 pct of revenue respectively. In Turkey this trend is mainly driven by the recent devaluation of the Turkish Lira: foreign exchange losses of €125 million ($138 million) hit Turkish clubs in FY2018 even harder than in FY2017 (€73m)," the report said.

The English Premier League clubs generated €382 million ($423.6 million) profit to top the list.

Salary costs of Turkish Super Lig teams also increased by 36 pct (6 pct in Euro), recording the highest footballers' wage growth among the European leagues in 2018 financial year.

"Wages increased in 17 of the top 20 leagues, with only Austria, the Netherlands and Greece reporting a decrease in wages, albeit a marginal decrease for the first two," it added.

The report listed Turkey's top three clubs -- Big Three -- among the top 20 teams in Europe which suffered the highest net debt.

Fenerbahçe were ranked 6th with €334 million ($370 million) net debt, Beşiktaş had €183 million ($203 million) net debt and was on the 15th place and Galatasaray took the 17th place with €175 million ($194 million) net debt.

The Russian clubs Rostov and Ural Yekaterinburg, PAOK and Olympiacos from Greece, Barcelona of Spain, Italian club Lazio and Turkey's Fenerbahçe “all saw their aggregate attendance figures increase by more than 6,000,” according to the report.

In addition, Turkish clubs aggregated a great increase in gate receipts by 52 pct while Istanbul club Medipol Başakşehir led the list with a total of 158 pct rise in this field.

Galatasaray became the only Turkish club to take place in the list among top 30 clubs for their average income per match attendee.

The Lions recorded an average of €37 ($41) per paying attendee to be in the 30th spot in this category.