In a significant blow to the world of Italian professional football, an annual report has revealed that a staggering 3.6 billion euros ($3.97 billion) were lost by Italian football clubs between 2019 and 2022 as a direct result of COVID-19 and the ensuing restrictions.

The findings have been unveiled in the much-anticipated 2023 edition of ReportCalcio, released by the Italian Football Federation. The report underscores the severe financial impact of the pandemic on the sport, particularly on the top three divisions of Italian football, which suffered an average annual loss of 1.2 billion euros during the pandemic era. To put this into perspective, the cumulative losses stood at a considerably lower 412 million euros during the 2018-19 season before the pandemic gripped the nation.

The most recent figures available in the report are for the 2021-22 season, which proved to be a monumental challenge for Italian football clubs. A staggering loss of 1.4 billion euros was recorded for this single season alone, marking it as "the worst ever recorded in the fifteen years that this annual report has been published," the report stated with an air of somberness.

The financial turmoil has also manifested itself in the growing indebtedness of Italian professional football, which skyrocketed to 5.6 billion euros during the 2021-22 season, representing a significant 4.4% increase within a span of just one year.

Amidst these concerning figures, a glimmer of hope emerges as the report's authors embrace the joint candidacy of Italy and Türkiye to host Euro 2032. This collaborative effort is seen as "a unique opportunity" to rejuvenate ticketing revenue by initiating a modernization drive to overhaul a fleet of notoriously outdated stadiums.

In terms of ticketing revenue, Italian professional football collectively earned 254 million euros during the 2021-22 season, reflecting an improvement from the 226 million euros generated in the preceding year. However, it remains a far cry from the 341 million euros achieved in the 2018-19 season, the last full season before the pandemic wreaked havoc.

For perspective, a single club like Manchester United managed to amass a staggering 126 million euros in ticketing revenue during the 2021-22 season, as per the Deloitte report, underscoring the financial chasm that has opened up between Italian football and its more prosperous European counterparts.