Bologna Finances 2022/23

Life Of Surprises

It’s fair to say that before the 2023/24 season kicked off, few football fans would have expected Bologna to qualify for the Champions League, after many years of mid-table obscurity in Serie A.

However, the Rossoblù significantly outperformed expectations to achieve this difficult objective by finishing in an impressive fifth place (after the performance of Italian teams in Europe secured an additional Champions League spot for Serie A).

Under head coach Thiago Motta, Bologna proved to be one of last season’s biggest surprise packages, playing fluid, progressive football to finish higher than some of Italy’s traditional giants.

Of course, the danger when a smaller club does well is that the bigger clubs will tempt the talent away, which has already happened here, as Motta did not renew his contract after the season ended. The smart money is on the former Italy international moving to Juventus after the sacking of Max Allegri.

History

To underline the magnitude of Bologna’s feat, this is the first time that they have managed to qualify for Europe’s leading competition in 60 years.

It is true that they have been Serie A winners on no fewer than seven occasions, but most of these victories came before the Second World War, while their most recent title was in 1964.

Ownership

After numerous changes in ownership and issues with financial mismanagement, culminating in relegation to Serie B, Canadian businessman Joey Saputo invested in Bologna in October 2014 as part of consortium also involving Joe Tacopina.

Saputo, who has been president of MLS team CF Montréal for many years, has said that his initial idea was to only assume a marginal role, but Bologna’s financial difficulties led him to become majority shareholder and chairman.

Under his ownership, the club was immediately promoted back to the Italian top flight in 2015, where it has remained ever since, which is not too bad, given Bologna’s limited budget.

Supporters have not always been enamoured of Saputo, once putting banners around the training ground, asking “where are you?”, but the Canadian’s bold prediction back in 2015 that “in ten years we will reach Europe” has now come to pass.

So let’s take a look at the finances of the club from Emilia-Romagna to see how this improvement has been accomplished, using the most recent accounts from the 2022/23 season, when Bologna finished in a creditable ninth place.

Profit/(Loss) 2022/23

Bologna reduced their pre-tax loss in 2022/23 by over two-thirds, as this fell from €46m to €14m. This was mainly thanks to significant increases in revenue, up €13m (21%) from €63m to €76m, and profit from player sales, which more than doubled from €14m to €34m. Other income from player management was also up €4.3m from €2.6m to €6.9m.

The growth was partly offset by higher operating expenses, which rose €6m (5%) from €124m to €130m.

The loss after tax decreased from €47m to €16m after a €2m tax charge.

There was growth in all of Bologna’s revenue streams, though commercial led the way, rising €6m (40%) from €16m to €22m. Broadcasting increased €5m (12%) from €42m to €47m, while match day was up €1.9m (43%) from €4.5m to €6.4m. However, player loans slightly fell from €0.5m to €0.3m.

Bologna’s wage bill slightly rose from €68m to €69m, but player amortisation fell €4m (12%) from €34m to €30m, though player write-downs were up from €0.5m to €4.0m. Other expenses increased by a third, rising €6m from €20m to €26m.

As a technical aside, the definition of revenue used in Bologna’s accounts off €117m is different to the one used in my analysis of €76m, as this also includes the €35m gain on player sales and €6m other income from player management.

Despite the improvement, Bologna’s €14m pre-tax loss was only the twelfth best result in Serie A in 2022/23, as some clubs did very well financially, especially Napoli, who posted the highest ever profit in Italy with an amazing €118m. Five other clubs also managed to make money, though the next highest were much smaller, namely Milan €14m and Cremonese €10m.