Crises are conducive to questioning. The one caused by the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the economy as a whole. Football, an industry in its own right, is no exception. While it is at a standstill, the model on which this sport has been built for years is battered. The world asks some of its actors about how to manage the current crisis, what it is revealing, how to get out of it and, perhaps, the changes to be made. David Dellea, director of the sports branch of the audit and consultancy firm PwC, in Switzerland, believes that the period usefully reveals the weaknesses of the current model but does not believe in a decrease.
How would you describe the current situation for the football economy?
There is no more generation of value, so the consequences are bound to be disastrous. This highlights the sustainability issues in the football economy. The urgency for the actors is to make up for the lack of liquidity.
Certain players in the sports world are exposed. As the big football clubs are very media brands, we always have the impression that they are very solid. But they are neither Nestlé nor Novartis! They are SMEs. And no restaurant or cinema, no matter how large, can finance itself six months without any income.
Do you have any medium-term concerns about the sustainability of the system?
I do not believe in a decline of the high level because the place of football as a dominant sport will remain. But, if everyone is looking at the top of the system, don't forget the base. I have more concerns for this non-professional sector when I look at the Swiss example: here, half of the aid deployed to the world of sport to overcome this crisis will go back to professional sport.
If, in the future, it is necessary to support professional sport financially, what will happen below? The whole pyramid depends on income from the top to finance the base. We will have to find a way to continue to support the amateur world in an appropriate way and to make sure that this system starts working again in the medium term.
Will professional clubs suffer from a drop in their revenues?
The ability of the economy as a whole to invest in sport will diminish, and as always, the weakest will suffer. The Champions League, like Formula 1 for example, will remain a luxury asset, a premium property. The major sports brands will continue to benefit from a competitive situation between potential sponsors. But the others will suffer.
