Napoli Finances 2023/24

Filmstar

The recent sale of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain for €70m once again highlighted Napoli’s ability to make big money from transfers. In the case of the exciting Georgian winger, this was exacerbated by the fact that his value in the books was only €2m, so the profit from the deal weighed in at a hefty €68m.

In fact, based on the reported fee, this was the fifth highest profit from a player sale ever made by an Italian club. This is nothing new for Napoli, who have no fewer than four of the top ten player trading profits, including the best of all with €86m from the sale of Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus in the 2016/17 season.

Despite Napoli frequently selling their big stars, the team has done pretty well in recent years, actually winning the league in 2022/23 for only the third time in their history, while playing some brilliant football under head coach Luciano Spalletti.

Given Napoli’s financial disadvantages compared to the traditional “big” Italian clubs, their consistently high finishes in Serie A have been pretty impressive, but the wheels came off last season, when they fell to 10th place, which was their lowest league position since 2008/09.

This was one of the worst ever title defences in Italy and meant that the club missed out on European qualification for the first time since 2009.

Napoli also crashed out of the Coppa Italia in the last 16, when they were thumped 4-0 at home by lowly Frosinone. More impressively, they got to the same stage of the Champions League, before being eliminated by Barcelona.

The Season of the Managers

This was not helped by numerous changes in the head coach, as the club had three different ones guiding the team during the 2023/24 season.

After Spalletti requested a year-long sabbatical (before being appointed manager of the Italy national team), former Roma manager Rudi Garcia was given first crack of the whip, though he was quickly sacked in November 2023 after an indifferent start to the season.

As a result, he was succeeded by Walter Mazzarri, but the veteran coach only lasted three months, before he was also dismissed. He was in turn succeeded by Francesco Calzona, one of Spalletti’s former assistants, who was given the job until the end of the season, though he continued to manage the Slovakian national team at the same time.

No matter, this season has seen the arrival of Antonio Conte, who has guided the team back to the top of the table, though there is obviously a long way to go before the club can declare victory.

Although Napoli struggled on the pitch last season, they again performed very well financially, which is very much a hallmark of owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, who bought the club in 2004 after it went bankrupt and was relegated to the third tier.

Since those dark days, the Italian film producer has preached financial sustainability, as can be seen by a review of the 2023/24 accounts.

Profit/(Loss) 2023/24

Napoli’s pre-tax profit fell from €118m to €91m, though this was still a hugely impressive figure by anyone’s standards. The club said that the decrease was due to “sporting results that were largely lower than expected”, which led to revenue dropping by €23m (8%) from their record €280m to €257m. In addition, profit from player sales was down from €80m to €71m.

Napoli’s operating expenses hardly increased at all, as they restricted growth to just 1% (€2m), which is unusual for football clubs these days. Net interest receivable shot up from €1m to €7m, due to the club’s very high cash balance.

The largest revenue decrease was broadcasting, which fell €19m (12%) from €161m to €142m. while match day was also down €11m (28%) from €38m to €27m and player loans more than halved from €4.6m to €2.2m.

On the other hand, commercial rose €10m (12%) from €76m to €86m.

As a technical aside, this international definition of Napoli’s €257m revenue is different to the one used in the club accounts, which also includes the €71m gain on player sales, giving total revenue of €328m. This also fell €31m (9%) from the previous season’s €359m.

Despite the worse performances in Serie A and the Champions League, Napoli’s wage bill increased by €5m (5%) from €111m to €116m, though player amortisation fell €7m (10%) from €78m to €71m, while depreciation was also down by a third to €5m. However, other expenses were up again, rising €7m (15%) from €46m to €53m.