The latest financial projections for the 2025/26 season have revealed sharply contrasting fortunes for Italy’s three biggest clubs, with Inter emerging as the strongest performer while AC Milan and Juventus continue to battle significant financial challenges.
Although the three clubs remain the country’s biggest institutions in terms of fanbase, history, silverware and commercial appeal, their latest balance sheets demonstrate how differently they are navigating today’s football economy.
Inter closed the financial year with an estimated profit of €15 million after winning both Serie A and the Coppa Italia. While that figure is considerably lower than the record revenues generated the previous season, when a deep UEFA Champions League run and substantial FIFA Club World Cup prize money helped push turnover to unprecedented levels, it still reflects the club’s improved financial stability.
Higher matchday revenues also contributed to Inter’s positive result, while compensation linked to the IMG legal settlement provided an additional boost. Without that extraordinary income, the Nerazzurri would have finished close to breaking even, yet remaining profitable despite an earlier-than-expected Champions League exit highlights the strength of the club’s current financial management.
Across the city, Milan experienced a far more difficult campaign. Despite receiving approximately €20 million from the same IMG settlement, the Rossoneri are expected to report a loss of around €25 million.
The figure represents a significant deterioration from the previous financial year, when the club recorded a modest profit of €2.9 million thanks to Champions League revenues and the substantial capital gain generated by the sale of Tijjani Reijnders. This season, however, profits from the departures of Theo Hernández and Malik Thiaw proved insufficient to offset the financial impact of missing European football.
Juventus also remained in negative territory, with estimates placing the club’s loss at approximately €63 million, broadly in line with the previous year.
Although the Bianconeri benefited from UEFA Champions League income and the additional IMG-related revenue, they no longer received FIFA Club World Cup prize money, which had boosted the previous financial year. Combined with a sharp reduction in capital gains from player sales, overall revenues declined significantly.
The two pillars of modern Serie A finances
The contrasting results underline a broader trend affecting Italian football.
With domestic television rights fixed until the 2028/29 season, commercial revenues still well below those of Europe’s biggest clubs and stadium income limited by ageing infrastructure, Serie A clubs have relatively few opportunities to significantly increase their revenues.
As a consequence, two income streams have become increasingly decisive: player trading and prize money from UEFA and FIFA competitions.
Selling players continues to provide clubs with valuable financial flexibility, but often comes at a sporting cost. While clubs such as Atalanta and Udinese have successfully built sustainable models around developing and selling talent, that approach is considerably more difficult for clubs like Inter, Milan and Juventus, where expectations extend far beyond financial sustainability.
The alternative strategy is to build squads capable of competing deep into European competitions. Success in the UEFA Champions League delivers far greater prize money than the Europa League while also increasing matchday revenues through additional home fixtures. FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup has added another lucrative source of income, albeit one available only every four years.
Inter’s blueprint for success
Inter’s recent rise demonstrates that these two approaches can complement one another rather than compete.
The club’s record revenues during the 2024/25 season were driven by outstanding performances in both the Champions League and the Club World Cup. However, those achievements were made possible by transfer profits generated several years earlier through the sales of Achraf Hakimi and Romelu Lukaku, which produced capital gains of €33.5 million and €66.8 million respectively.
Those funds enabled sporting director Giuseppe Marotta to assemble the squad that has since delivered multiple Serie A titles and established itself among Europe’s strongest teams.
Inter’s off-field position has also changed dramatically.
During Steven Zhang’s ownership, the club remained heavily burdened by debt. In order to finance the signings of Hakimi, Lukaku and the transfer campaigns that culminated in Antonio Conte’s title-winning side in 2021, Zhang secured a personal €395 million loan from Oaktree, using Inter as collateral.
When that debt could not be repaid in 2024, ownership of the club passed to the American investment fund through enforcement of the pledge. Under Oaktree, Inter have entered a far more stable financial period, illustrating how strategic investment in elite players can eventually generate a self-sustaining cycle of sporting and financial success.
Milan shifts towards long-term investment
A very different picture is emerging at AC Milan.
While much of the Serie A transfer market has remained cautious, with clubs largely waiting for opportunities later in the window, Milan owner Gerry Cardinale appears determined to pursue a more ambitious strategy.
Inter’s €25 million investment in Anan Khalaili, for example, is only slightly higher than the amount the Nerazzurri have already recovered through Denzel Dumfries’ release clause, highlighting the careful financial balancing that continues across Italian football.
Cardinale has also made it clear that he intends to play a more decisive role in Milan’s future.
He recently explained that although the club’s coach and management team contribute to discussions, the final decision on every major matter ultimately rests with him, signalling a desire to reshape the club after four disappointing years under his ownership.
Having refinanced the €550 million vendor loan that gives him control of Milan by replacing Elliott with Comvest, Cardinale appears to recognise that another season outside the UEFA Champions League is not financially sustainable, particularly with another annual loss expected.
Rather than relying primarily on player sales and capital gains to balance the books, Milan now seem prepared to invest more heavily in strengthening the squad.
The club appears to be moving away from a model built around transfer profits and towards one focused on achieving sporting success, with the long-term objective of generating the far greater financial rewards available through UEFA competitions.
Whether that strategy proves successful will ultimately depend on performances on the pitch once the new season begins.
Serie A’s challenge against Europe’s financial giants
The growing importance of UEFA prize money is especially relevant in Italy because Serie A clubs operate under financial conditions that differ significantly from Europe’s wealthiest leagues.
Unlike Premier League sides, Italian clubs cannot rely on enormous domestic television revenues or consistently high stadium income. Nor do they possess the commercial power enjoyed by clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.
England provides a stark contrast.
Despite failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League, Tottenham Hotspur had already invested around €267 million by mid-July to sign Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Jan Paul van Hecke, with further additions still expected.
The financial strength of Premier League clubs allows them to spend aggressively regardless of European qualification, without depending on player sales or waiting for opportunities later in the transfer market.
For most Serie A clubs, however, the reality remains very different. Limited financial resources often force them to delay business, monitor the movements of Europe’s biggest clubs and capitalise on discounted deals or surplus players as the transfer window develops.
The financial results of Inter, Milan and Juventus ultimately illustrate the delicate balancing act facing Italy’s leading clubs. In today’s Serie A, sustained success depends not only on prudent financial management but also on finding the right equilibrium between profitable player trading, strategic investment and consistent performances in UEFA and FIFA competitions.
