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Big Six take 93 per cent of European TV money

In his new book on The Price of £ootball, Kieran Maguire says of the Zurich blogger Swiss Ramble 'Sets the standards that others can only dream to achieve.' He has spent a lifetime working in finance and is multilingual.

In his latest series of posts he looks at the revenue English clubs derive from European competitions. UEFA TV money earned by English clubs increased by a third (£105m) in 2018/19 from £322m to £427m, split between £352m from the Champions League and £75m from the Europa League. In fact, their European revenue has more than tripled in just four years – from only £129m in 2015.

Only considering revenue earned by the English clubs that qualified for Europe in this period, the share of total revenue contributed by European TV money has increased from 8% in 2015 to 14% in 2019. Note: this excludes income from gate receipts and sponsorship success clause.

However, there is a clear difference between earnings in the Champions League and the Europa League. In 2018/19, the four CL English clubs received between £80m and £100m, boosted by Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur reaching the final. However, Europa League finalists Chelsea and Arsenal only got £35-40m.

20% of Tottenham Hotspur's total revenue was contributed by European TV money, the highest in England. They were followed by the other Champions League representatives: Liverpool 18%, Manchester City 15% and Manchester United 13 per cent.

Over the last eight years (2012-19), English clubs have earned nearly €2bn in Europe TV money. Manchester City lead the way with €429m, followed by Chelsea €365m, Manchester United €337m, Arsenal €318m, Liverpool €269m and Spurs €250m. However, this hides the fact that Liverpool €192m and Spurs €163m have earned the most in England in the last two years, thus reporting massive growth over the preceding two-year period.

The Big Six have benefited from an amazing 93% of Europe TV money in the last 8 years, leaving only 7% to all the other English clubs. In fact, 4% of that went to Leicester City for their Champions League exploits in 2017, which means just 3% for everyone else.

More detailed information on individual clubs is available at @SwissRamble.

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