De Laurentiis' Napoli: 20 Years of Financial Success in Italian Football
Twenty years. Two championships, the third and fourth in the history of a club founded in 1926, therefore close to a century of life, which had lived its epic at the end of the 1980s with Diego Armando Maradona on the field. And which now instead rediscovers itself at the center of the football stage, within a new winning dimension and with a future yet to be written.
Antonio Conte , the last of the leaders, will have much to think about in the coming days. The architect of this new golden age, president Aurelio De Laurentiis , who has also enriched the blue trophy cabinet with three Italian Cups - the first title won in 2012 - and a tricolor Super Cup, on Friday night, with the victory just acquired, promised important purchases for the European campaign of the next season. The new goal of the Neapolitan club.
Purchases that - and this is the point - Napoli can afford, constituting a unicum in the Italian and European sports panorama (one could cite for the balance of accounts and the profitability of the project the unrivaled Bayern Munich, which however has among its shareholders giants such as Audi, Allianz and Adidas, as well as an army of over 300 thousand other shareholders).
Management based on the balance of accounts was only put into crisis by the pandemic, yet Napoli managed to record an overall surplus, offsetting the 130 million losses in the balance sheets from 2020 to 2022 with record profits of 80 million and 63 recorded in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
The season of the third Scudetto (2023) marked the record for profits in Serie A and the record for turnover for the Neapolitan club (excluding capital gains) equal to 275 million.
All this has allowed Napoli to accumulate, as of 30 June 2024, liquid assets of 210.5 million, with a consequent positive net financial position of 135 million.
At the end of this season, despite the absence of Champions League revenue - an exception compared to the assiduous participation in European cups of the De Laurentiis era - thanks to the capital gain bonus ensured by the sale in January 2025 of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to PSG for 75 million (the equally profitable sale of Victor Osimhen is expected in the summer), these numbers could be anything but worse. Giving De Laurentiis' company more than enough resources for an ambitious market like that of last summer.
Right after Conte's arrival, De Laurentiis opened the purse strings and spent around 150 million on the market, derogating from some rules he had imposed on himself regarding investments in footballers, to be hired only if they had the prospect of developing.
In fact, the club's accounts in Serie A, with costs more or less in line with traditional revenues (national TV rights, stadium and commercial area) have historically been kept in order by resorting to capital gains and earnings from the Champions League (and to a lesser extent from the Europa League).
The capital gains, also considering the January market, generated earnings of approximately 750 million (the record of 104 million in 2017, of which 86 for the sale of Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus).
Napoli has received from UEFA for its participation in European competitions (14) approximately 550 million (just under 440 from the eight qualifications in the Champions League). In total, these two items have brought 1.3 billion into the club's coffers out of the almost 4 billion euros of total turnover achieved between 2005 (the year of the first Filmauro-branded budget) to 2025. Almost a third of the revenue.
Aurelio De Laurentiis, as he often recalls, took over the club in 2004 from the ashes of bankruptcy. At the time, he obtained a loan from Unicredit of 32 million, repaid after just three years with the club's earnings, and then contributed 16.6 million in capital to cover the deficits in Serie C. Back in Serie A, with a young squad with low costs but immediately competitive, he has achieved eight consecutive financial statements in profit.
Between 2005 and 2024, the financial statements closed in positive territory - the worst balance sheet was closed in 2021, due to the pandemic and the absence from the Champions League, with a deficit of 58 million - were 12 and allowed to accumulate over 140 million in profits as of June 30, 2024.
In these 20 seasons, no dividends have ever been paid, while the president and his family members involved in the Board of Directors have received compensation of over 40 million.
From the approximately 100 million of the return to Serie A in 2009, the revenues connected to national TV rights, the stadium and the commercial area have risen constantly, now fluctuating steadily between 150 and 200 million. The Neapolitan club has already demonstrated that it knows how to improve its economic performance, trying to raise the level of premium hospitality despite the architectural limitations of the Maradona stadium and also with unconventional choices such as, for example, the self-production of the game shirt, albeit accompanied by the EA7 brand.
It is no coincidence, therefore, that commercial revenues (from sponsors and merchandising) rose to 70 million in 2024 after having remained stable for years between 30 and 40 million seasons and that stadium-related revenues have more than doubled in the last three seasons.
If the twenty-year management of Del Laurentiis has so far been marked by economic and financial sustainability, privileging investments in infrastructure and those in the football team, the time has come to change pace and face these challenges - from the new sports center to the renovation of the Maradona stadium -, essential to increase ordinary revenues and "monetize" the club's increasingly broad international visibility.
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