Like many aspects of women’s football in the last 5 years, the Damallsvenskan has experienced an increase in the sums of money being brought into the league in terms of revenue. As always, it is increasing disparity in the league itself and what the revenue looks like. The following numbers are for the 2024 season, including the 2024/25 UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) season, which the league had three teams competing across the competition.
Comparing Europe’s Women’s Football Economies
For the first time in history, OBOS Damallsvenskan, the topflight of women’s football in Sweden brought in a revenue of 200 million Swedish Krona. In Euros, this sum is equivalent to €18,344,441.82. To compare this to the Women’s Super League (WSL) in England, in the 2023/24 season (numbers for 24/25 yet to be released, the aggregate revenue was £65 million, or €74,412,000.00. Median revenue for 2024 was SEK 11,630,00 (€106,453.20) down from SEK 11,930,00 (€109,175.37). Three clubs registered a revenue of less than SEK 5 million for the 2024 season. Whilst assumptions would say they would be the three lowest teams in the league table, that is untrue. One did find themselves in the bottom 3 and forced into a playoff match for their survival in the topflight. However, the other two teams to register a revenue of less than 5 million finished 5th and 7th. This shows that revenue fluctuates across the league and it isn’t as black and white as top and bottom to the difference in revenue income.
Comparing Europe’s Women’s Football Economies
Over 50% of the leagues series total revenue came between the clubs for the 2024 season. These three clubs were Rosengård, Hammarby and BK Häcken. IT is worth noting that at the end of the 2024 season, these three teams made up the top 3 in the league table. Häcken brought in the most revenue in 2024, becoming the first women’s team to report a revenue over SEK 40 million. The side brought in SEK 42,771,000 (€3918897.21) This was SEK 5,458,000 more than Rosengård and SEK 8,668,000 more than Hammarby. However, the drop between the top three and the rest of the clubs is far greater. For example, third placed Hammarby brought in a revenue of 34,103,000 whilst fourth placed Kristianstad DFF brought in 14,064,000. That means in revenue intake, there was a stark SEK 20,039,000 between fourth and third. Now, Hammarby’s numbers do include UEFA compensation whilst Kristianstad’s don’t. But, this does prove there is revenue in the league itself, but for ‘impressive’ numbers, it must be bolstered by outside competitions that organically have more money than the league.
A large portion of Damallsvenskan’s revenue came from the UWCL games and players rights sales. In the Champions League, the league had three teams competing in the 2024/25 season. Linköping were eliminated in the first round of qualifying, BK Häcken were eliminated in the second round of qualifying, with Hammarby the only team to reach the group stages, where they were eliminated after a tough group. The UWCL revenue played a significant part in the overall number brought into the league. It only included compensation from UEFA, unlike previous seasons where it included audience and match revenue too. It, like many other figures, continues to increase. In many ways, this shows how important it is for teams from ‘smaller’ leagues to continue to compete in the European competitions, both the Champions League and from this season, the Europa Cup too. The compensation from UEFA taking up such space in the revenue of the leagues shows a deep importance to pushing Swedish teams to continue to compete at the highest level in Europe.
The Big Three Dominate the Balance Sheet
Outside of the league’s revenue, half of Hammarby’s revenue for the 2024 season came from their inaugural season competing in the UWCL, as well as audience revenue. On the small scale, this puts the overall scale of these number into perspective. For one club alone, the income from the Champions League was half of their overall figures. This means, despite Hammarby being one of the biggest revenue incomers for the league, they are still reliant on UEFA to make up most of their numbers. For ‘small’ leagues such as Damallsvenskan, it is key that the access to this revenue through their teams competing in the competitions is there to help the league as a whole. For example, Hammarby stated that SEK 9.2 million came from the audience revenue from the Champions League games where they averaged an attendance of 15,585 people for their three home group stage matches. This number seemingly does not include their qualifying home match against Portuguese side Benfica, where they broke a long standing attendance record.
Player Transfers and Rising Costs
Other notable numbers for the income of the Damallsvenskan last season included player rights sales. These reached another record level, and totalled SEK 13,996,000 or €1,280,884.09. Most sales came to clubs outside of Sweden, with 44% of these came from the top 3 teams. Player salaries increased by 14%, with personnel costs making up 63% of the league’ costs, up 21%.
Overall, costs continued to increase at a higher rate than income being brought into the league. This is not surprising, or uncommon in women’s football at the rate it is growing. Improvements in the overarching sport of women’s football is having a clear and obvious knock on effect on Damallsvenskan, showing that as prices increase across the globe, they do too in Sweden.
Author: Liberty Simons
