Income of Azerbaijani football clubs revealed

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijani Premier League football clubs earned 27.2 million euros in 2018, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has revealed in its financial report detailing the distribution of revenue from the 2018/19.

On average, each of the eight Azerbaijani clubs earned 3.4 million euros in 2018. By this indicator, the Premier League of Azerbaijan ranked 28th among 55 European countries.

According to the report, 51 percent of the income made by Azerbaijani clubs came from sponsors and advertising, while 36 percent of revenues came from the UEFA. Other incomes account for 11 percent of the overall incomes. Two percent of incomes were from transfers and one percent from ticket sales.

Azerbaijani football clubs also increased their expenditures in 2018 and the salaries of football players accounted for 12 percent of the expenditures.

In the above mentioned period, eight Azerbaijani Premier League clubs paid football players a total of 17 million euros as a salary.

On average, each of the eight Azerbaijani clubs paid salaries worth 2.1 million euros. This indicator allows the Azerbaijani Premier League to be in top 30 in Europe.

English Premier League occupied the first place in the report, the average club income of which amounted to 272 million euros. German Bundesliga ranked second with 175.3 million euros, while Spanish La Liga was third- 157.3 million euros.

The English Premier League also holds first place for the amount of money spent on football players' salaries, in which clubs spent a total of 3.235 billion euros on clubs in total for salaries of players in 2018.

Football is a popular sport in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani football is organized by the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), which runs the national, professional football league, the AFFA Supreme League, and the Azerbaijani national football team.

The national team takes part in all competitions organised by FIFA and UEFA at both senior and youth levels.

Currently, there are eight football clubs competing in Azerbaijani Premier League: Qarabag FC, Neftchi PFC, Keshla FC, Sumgayit FC, Zira FC, Sabah FC, Qabala FC, Sabail FC.

In the last six years, Qarabag FC was the best in Premier League seasons 2013/2014, 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018, and 2018/2019.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 

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