Italian clubs’ debt increased by 50 per cent last season, according to an annual study published in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday.
Serie A clubs collectively lost 285 million euros in the 2010/11 season, up from 193 million euros in the previous campaign.
The primary guilty parties were the country’s three giants who together recorded losses of 252 million euros.
Juventus led the way with a 95.4 million euro loss followed by Inter Milan (86.8m) and AC Milan (69.8m).
It’s a worrying trend for Italy’s top clubs with UEFA’s new financial fairplay rules due to come into effect next season.
Juve could at least point to the construction of a new stadium for their losses but new rules regarding the sharing of television revenues will hurt the big three and benefit smaller clubs.
However, the biggest drain on resources is from player salaries, which account for 89 per cent of Juve’s budget and similar figures for both Inter (88 per cent) and Milan (85 per cent).
Not all Italian teams are struggling in such a way, though, with some being particularly well run.
One such is Cagliari who made a profit for the fifth year in a row.
Napoli, who are still in the Champions League this season, also proved that success does not necessarily have to come at a cost as they made a 4.2 million euro profit and kept player salaries down to just 42 per cent of their budget.