Global Fútbol

Over the past four years LaLiga has made data a central part of its global strategy. Through the league’s Business Intelligence and Analytics department, relevant information is collected across all its key operations and is used to make informed strategic decisions. To ensure that the entire league benefits from this information, this data is provided to all LaLiga clubs who can analyse audiences, campaigns or countries of interest.

Having updated its financial dashboards, clubs can now take the next step in their data analysis by comparing a wide range of commercial information against other major competitions across Europe.

The Data Finance dashboard provides current data on each one of the top two leagues in Spain, England, Germany, Italy and France, as well as UEFA competitions. Information is available from the 2012/13 up to the 2018/19 season and is updated as new financial statements are published by the clubs. “The new financial dashboard not only makes it possible for LaLiga clubs to study and detect examples of good management at a national level, but also trends across Europe that may be to their benefit,” said LaLiga financial analyst Diego Martínez. 

“By comparing their circumstances against European peers, clubs can highlight their own commercial success internally and maximise new growth opportunities. This level of clarity is only possible through having access to accurate data.”

Comparing financial data trends
Using the dashboards, clubs can view information on everything from money generated by competitions to ticketing revenue to investments and debt levels, comparing their own figures against other individual clubs, a selected group of clubs, leagues or individual seasons. 

To help with this analysis, LaLiga has created a new tab that explains the evolution of club profit & loss statements, showing back-dated information on net turnover (INCN), pre-tax earnings before transfers (EBITDA) and pre-tax profits (RAI). 

“We want to show the clearest possible picture of how clubs are performing over time in order to show which are working in a financially stable manner,” added Martínez.

Analysing UEFA competitions
Another new feature helps clubs to view the results of taking part in UEFA competitions. The dashboard now includes information on how income was distributed in the different rounds of the Champions League and Europa League over past seasons and the factors that affected this distribution.

This information can then be analysed by club, season or country, allowing clubs to build a ranking based on these indicators.

“Income from European competition can have a differing level of impact on club finances and having this information to hand can help with accurate data comparisons as well as future projections,” Martínez said.

Benefits to all clubs
As with all data dashboards that LaLiga provides to clubs, the platform is interactive and easy to use, with various tools to assist clubs’ commercial departments in making astute decisions. Important findings are displayed in clear visual formats and can now be downloaded into several different formats, including Excel.

By offering access to all 42 clubs of LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank, the entire competition benefits from these new insights. LaLiga also provides technical or analytics guidance to all clubs that request it, ensuring that everyone can arrive at the best commercial decisions, whether or not they have internal data or analytics teams.

“Data is part of our DNA and LaLiga clubs are recognising the impact it can have on all departments,” Martínez said. “By making our resources available across all clubs we can amplify its effect and help the entire competition to grow. This benefits LaLiga clubs but also has a positive effect for the wider football industry.”