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Premiership riches

The owners of the three Championship clubs promoted last year spent £600m in the pursuit of promotion to the Premier League. One can see why they might do so. The accounts of Burnley for 2016-17 show a profit of £500,000 a week. Turnover went up from £40m to £121m.

87 per cent of Burnley's income came from broadcasting, an even higher figure than for most top flight clubs. At £104m it was over twenty times matchday income. Commercial income went up from £2.7m to £6.2m, but this was still a relatively low figure for a Premier League club.

£50 was spent on wages for every £100 of income, hitting the Deloitte target exactly. In the previous financial year the ratio was 96 per cent. Wage costs still went up from £34.3m to £55.5m, but were offset by rising income. £42.8m was spent on player acquisitions, offset by just £1.6m of sales.

It is worth noting that the Clarets paid the lowest wages of any Premier League club last season and are currently 7th in the division.

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