The Italian Serie A is one of the biggest football leagues in the world and one of Europe’s “Big Five” domestic competitions, alongside the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1.
Clubs such as Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Napoli, Roma and Lazio generate hundreds of millions of euros through television rights, sponsorships, ticket sales, European competitions and player transfers.
But how much money does Serie A actually generate?
And, more importantly, how much money does Serie A distribute to its clubs?
The answer is interesting because Serie A’s financial structure is quite different from the Premier League.
In the 2024/25 season, Serie A clubs generated around €3 billion in underlying revenue, according to Deloitte. However, when player-transfer income and certain other accounting items are included, an analysis of all 20 clubs’ accounts puts total reported revenue at approximately €4.04 billion.
That distinction is important because player sales can dramatically increase a club’s reported revenue in a particular year.
Serie A Generated About €3 Billion in Regular Revenue
According to Deloitte’s latest football-finance review, Serie A clubs generated approximately:
€3.0 billion
in revenue during the 2024/25 season, representing about a 4% increase from the previous season.
However, when all revenue categories in the clubs’ financial statements are combined—including significant player-trading income—the total reaches approximately:
€4.04 billion
according to Calcio e Finanza’s analysis of all 20 Serie A clubs.
So if you’re making a video, be careful about saying simply “Serie A made €4 billion.”
A more accurate statement is:
Serie A clubs generated around €3 billion in underlying revenue in 2024/25, while reported aggregate revenue including player-management income reached approximately €4.04 billion.
Where Does Serie A’s Money Come From?
Like the Premier League, Serie A has several major sources of income.
The biggest include:
1. Television and broadcasting rights
2. Commercial and sponsorship revenue
3. Matchday revenue
4. European competition income
5. Player transfers
Television remains particularly important to Italian football.
In the 2024/25 club accounts, audiovisual rights generated approximately:
€1.52 billion
That represented around 37% of the €4.04 billion aggregate reported revenue.
Television Rights Are the Financial Backbone
Serie A sells domestic and international broadcasting rights to broadcasters and streaming platforms.
The current domestic rights cycle began with the 2024/25 season.
The domestic broadcasting package has an average reported value of around:
€900 million per season
with additional potential revenue depending on subscription-related targets.
International rights add further revenue.
A UEFA benchmarking report puts Serie A’s domestic and international media-rights value at roughly €1.2 billion annually when the relevant rights packages are combined.
This broadcasting money is then distributed among the 20 clubs.
How Much Does Serie A Actually Pay Its Clubs From TV Rights?
This is where Serie A differs significantly from the Premier League.
For the 2024/25 season, approximately:
€898 million
was available as net domestic TV-rights distribution to the 20 clubs.
The figure is after deductions for things such as solidarity payments, parachute payments for relegated clubs and other obligations.
That’s roughly:
€44.9 million per club on average
if you simply divided the €898 million equally.
But Serie A does not divide the money equally.
Some clubs receive considerably more.
How Is Serie A TV Money Divided?
Serie A’s distribution system is based on several factors.
The broad structure is:
50% — Equal share
28% — Sporting results
22% — Social/market following
This means every club receives a significant basic payment, but sporting performance and popularity affect the final amount.
Let’s break that down.
50% Is Shared Equally
Half of the distributable domestic broadcasting revenue is divided equally among all 20 clubs.
For the 2024/25 season, this amounted to approximately:
€450 million
So each club’s equal share was approximately:
€22.5 million
before the other components were added.
This provides a financial foundation for every Serie A club.
28% Depends on Sporting Results
The second major component rewards clubs according to their sporting performance.
It considers:
- Current league position
- Points earned
- Recent league performance
- Historical sporting performance
The idea is straightforward.
A club that consistently performs well should receive more money than one that consistently finishes near the bottom.
Approximately €252 million of the 2024/25 distribution was linked to these sporting criteria.
22% Depends on Social Following
This is another interesting feature.
Serie A considers the popularity and following of clubs when distributing part of the broadcasting revenue.
This includes factors such as:
- Stadium attendance
- Television audience
- Youth-player usage
For 2024/25, this component represented approximately €198 million.
This means a club with a huge fanbase can potentially receive more than a similarly placed club with a smaller following.
How Much Did the Biggest Clubs Receive?
The distribution produces a noticeable difference between the biggest and smallest clubs.
For 2024/25, estimates placed:
Inter
at more than €80 million
from domestic Serie A television rights.
Napoli
and
AC Milan
were below €70 million.
Juventus
received approximately €67 million.
At the bottom, clubs such as Parma, Empoli, Venezia and Monza received less than €30 million.
The difference between the highest and lowest club was therefore roughly 3:1.
That is considerably wider than the Premier League’s distribution ratio.
Why Doesn’t Serie A Pay as Much as the Premier League?
This is one of the biggest differences between the two leagues.
The Premier League has much more valuable domestic and international broadcasting rights.
Deloitte’s figures show Premier League clubs generating £6.8 billion in combined revenue in 2024/25, while Serie A’s underlying club revenue was around €3 billion.
That enormous financial difference gives English clubs much greater spending power.
It helps explain why Premier League clubs can regularly pay extremely high transfer fees and salaries.
Commercial Revenue
Broadcasting isn’t the only source of money.
Serie A clubs also make money through:
- Shirt sponsorship
- Kit deals
- Advertising
- Merchandise
- Corporate partnerships
- Licensing
- Stadium sponsorship
- Other commercial activities
In 2024/25, Serie A clubs generated approximately:
€803 million
from commercial revenue according to Calcio e Finanza’s analysis.
That represented around 20% of their total reported revenue.
Matchday Revenue
Italian football has historically struggled to generate as much stadium revenue as the Premier League.
One major reason is stadium infrastructure.
Many Italian stadiums are old and require modernization.
Nevertheless, matchday revenue remains important.
In 2024/25, Serie A clubs generated approximately:
€435 million
from matchday-related revenue.
That includes money from:
- Tickets
- Hospitality
- Food and beverages
- Stadium facilities
- Matchday services
Compared with the Premier League’s more than £1 billion in matchday revenue, Serie A still has considerable room for growth.
Player Transfers Are a Huge Part of Serie A’s Financial System
This is particularly important.
Italian clubs are often heavily involved in buying and selling players.
In 2024/25, Serie A clubs recorded approximately:
€1.035 billion
in revenue from the management/trading of players, according to the analysis of club accounts.
That represented approximately 25% of total reported revenue.
But there’s a catch.
Player-transfer income isn’t the same as normal recurring revenue.
A club might sell one player for €80 million in one season and receive nothing comparable the following year.
Therefore, relying heavily on player sales can make a club’s finances volatile.
European Competitions Bring Additional Money
Serie A clubs can also earn substantial amounts from UEFA competitions.
If Inter, Milan, Juventus, Napoli, Roma or another Italian club qualifies for the Champions League, it can receive additional money through:
- Participation payments
- Match results
- League position
- Knockout-stage progress
- UEFA’s value pillar
- Matchday revenue
- Commercial opportunities
This money is separate from the normal domestic Serie A distribution.
Therefore, a club competing in the Champions League can earn dramatically more than one that only plays domestic football.
Why Champions League Qualification Is So Important
Imagine two Serie A clubs.
Both receive approximately €50 million from domestic broadcasting and other league-related income.
Club A qualifies for the Champions League.
Club B does not.
Club A can now potentially add tens of millions of euros in UEFA distributions.
It can also sell more expensive hospitality packages, attract additional sponsors and generate more international exposure.
That’s why finishing high enough in Serie A to qualify for Europe can be financially transformative.
How Much Do Serie A Clubs Spend on Wages?
The financial pressure becomes clearer when we look at costs.
Serie A clubs had approximately:
€2 billion in wage costs
according to Deloitte’s 2023/24 data, with a wages-to-revenue ratio of approximately 68%.
The latest 2024/25 club-account analysis puts total personnel costs at approximately:
€1.9 billion
representing about 47% of total reported costs.
This includes more than just footballers’ salaries.
It can include:
- Player wages
- Coaches
- Technical staff
- Administrative staff
- Other employees
But players make up a substantial part of the wage bill.
How Can Serie A Clubs Afford to Pay Footballers?
The answer is the same basic financial model we discussed with the Premier League.
Money comes in through:
TV rights
Sponsors
Tickets
European competitions
Merchandise
Player sales
Other commercial activities
That money is then used to pay:
- Players
- Coaches
- Staff
- Transfer fees
- Agents
- Stadium costs
- Training facilities
- Taxes
- Debt
- Other operating expenses
The remaining amount can become profit or be reinvested into the club.
Why Juventus, Inter and Milan Have an Advantage
The biggest Serie A clubs have an additional advantage.
They have:
- Huge fanbases
- International recognition
- Large commercial partnerships
- European competition history
- Strong merchandise sales
- Significant stadium audiences
- Greater sponsorship potential
Deloitte reports that Juventus, Inter and AC Milan accounted for approximately 45% of Serie A’s total revenue in 2024/25.
That’s an extraordinary concentration of financial power.
Three clubs alone generated nearly half of the league’s underlying revenue.
The Financial Gap Within Serie A
Serie A therefore has two different financial realities.
At the top are clubs such as:
Inter
AC Milan
Juventus
Napoli
These clubs can generate significant domestic, European and commercial revenue.
Further down are smaller clubs that may have much smaller stadiums, fewer sponsors and smaller fanbases.
The broadcasting distribution system attempts to reduce the gap by giving every club an equal share of 50% of the distributable domestic TV revenue.
But differences remain.
Serie A vs Premier League
Let’s put the two leagues side by side.
| Financial area | Premier League 2024/25 | Serie A 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Club revenue | £6.8bn | ~€3.0bn underlying |
| Reported revenue incl. player management | — | ~€4.04bn |
| Broadcasting revenue | £3.4bn | ~€1.52bn |
| Commercial revenue | £2.4bn | ~€803m |
| Matchday revenue | >£1bn | ~€435m |
| Player/wage costs | £4.4bn wages | ~€1.9bn personnel costs |
| Domestic TV distribution to clubs | Much higher | ~€898m net |
The measurements aren’t perfectly identical because the leagues and reports use different accounting methodologies, but the overall picture is very clear:
The Premier League is financially much larger than Serie A.
The Future of Serie A
Serie A still has enormous potential.
Italy has some of the world’s most famous football clubs.
It has:
- Massive football culture
- Historic stadiums
- Global brands
- Legendary clubs
- Millions of supporters
- Strong European competition history
But improving stadium infrastructure could make a major difference.
Modern stadiums can generate significantly more money through:
- Premium seating
- Corporate hospitality
- Restaurants
- Museums
- Retail
- Naming rights
- Events
- Better matchday experiences
Increasing international broadcasting revenue could also help Serie A close the financial gap with England.
Final Answer: How Much Does Serie A Generate and Pay Its Clubs?
The latest figures give us a clear picture.
Serie A clubs generated around €3 billion in underlying revenue in 2024/25.
When player-management income and other accounting categories are included, the combined reported revenue of all 20 clubs reached approximately:
€4.04 billion
The major sources included:
📺 Broadcasting: ~€1.52 billion
🤝 Commercial revenue: ~€803 million
🏟️ Matchday revenue: ~€435 million
⚽ Player-management income: ~€1.04 billion
From domestic Serie A broadcasting rights, approximately:
€898 million
was distributed net to the 20 clubs in 2024/25.
That money isn’t divided equally.
Approximately 50% is divided equally, while 28% depends on sporting performance and 22% is linked to social following and related criteria.
Consequently, Inter received more than €80 million from domestic Serie A TV rights, while Juventus received around €67 million, and the lowest-receiving clubs received less than €30 million.
And that’s before adding:
Champions League money
Europa League money
Sponsorships
Ticket sales
Merchandise
Player sales
Other commercial income
This is how Serie A clubs generate enough money to operate and pay professional footballers.
However, compared with the Premier League, Serie A operates on a considerably smaller financial scale.
The Premier League is currently the financial giant of European domestic football, while Serie A remains a hugely important but financially smaller competition.
And that’s one of the biggest reasons why the Premier League can offer clubs and players substantially more money than Italian football.


