PSG's On-Field Success Still Leaves Club Unprofitable Off It
The financial loss for the European champions shows how even the biggest clubs are struggling to turn a profit.
Paris Saint-Germain still made a small loss last season after winning the Champions League, underscoring the challenge that even Europe’s top football clubs face in making a profit.
The French club is close to breaking even, a PSG spokesperson said Tuesday, though it declined to disclose the size of the loss. Revenue edged up to €837 million ($976 million) in a season where the team won Europe’s top club prize for the first time.
The financial loss for the European champions shows how even the biggest clubs are struggling to turn a profit. While revenue is climbing, player salaries remain a significant burden on many teams’ finances.
PSG was hit by lower domestic broadcast revenue last season after streamer DAZN walked away mid-contract. France’s Ligue 1 is testing out a new model with its own channel, but PSG expects to earn just a fraction of what Premier League clubs make from domestic TV rights — even the weakest top-flight English clubs made more than €130 million from local broadcast last season.
The team faces other hurdles. With a capacity of around 47,000, the club’s stadium is smaller than many of its European rivals, which has prompted discussions about whether it needs to move to a new site on the outskirts of Paris.
Still, PSG’s revenue puts the Qatar-owned club in the top ranks of European football’s highest money-makers. Real Madrid leads the way, having become the first football club to pass €1 billion in revenue in the 2023/24 season, with Manchester City not far behind.
PSG’s focus on nurturing younger talent over signing superstar players like Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe as it did in the past is starting to pay off financially as well as on the field. The cost of player salaries has dropped to below 65% of revenue, the club said. Revenue was boosted by higher ticket and international broadcast income from its success on the pitch, which also included finishing runner up in the Club World Cup.
PSG is controlled by the Qatar Sports Investments, a subsidiary of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which in 2023 sold a minority stake to US sports fund Arctos Partners, valuing the club at roughly €4 billion. Revenue has increased ninefold since QSI took control in 2011, PSG said.
