Atletico Madrid have grown significantly as a club over the last decade, increasing their budget five-fold from 100 million euros to 500 million euros, and this has allowed Los Rojiblancos to become one of Europe’s elite.

In fact, since 2014, Atletico have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, a jump in sporting performance that has been reflected in the club’s accounts.

That growth has been affected by the coronavirus-enforced stoppage of football, just like it has impacted every other club in the world.

While some leagues (like Ligue 1 and the Eredivisie) have brought the 2019/20 season to an end, everything is being prepared so that LaLiga Santander can return for its 11 final matchdays.

As such, there are 33 points to be played for and where Atletico end up in the table will affect how much money they receive.

“If we don’t finish the league, it’ll be very tough,” those who know the club’s financial accounts have said.

There is an emphasis placed on not losing the income from television rights (the large portion of income for all clubs) and also funds from sponsorships and marketing.

Something that cannot be done, however, is earning money from ticket sales due to the fact that games will be played behind closed doors, so Atletico will lose 15 million euros as a result of their more than 60,000 spectators remaining at home.

Season ticket holders, in fact, will have those matches discounted for next season.

That’s why it’s so important to play these remaining 11 matchdays.

It is vital for the club that things get back underway as their 500 million euro budget has already taken a hit of over 100 million euro as a result of the stoppage of football.

Should football not return, though, things would get even worse.

What’s interesting is that Atletico’s accounts also reflect an important dependency on reaching next season’s Champions League, which brings with it a big financial boost.

Then it will be necessary to analyse the transfer market and see how Diego Simeone’s squad can be strengthened (there will be no big-money transfers like Thomas Lemar, Diego Costa or Joao Felix, while some players could be sold to balance the books.

But that’s another issue that will have to be addressed in a few months’ time, once the rest of the season has or hasn’t been played.

This is a vital issue for Atletico as they look to the future, yet it was just two months ago that they beat Liverpool at Anfield to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

SOURCE:- allfootballapp