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Premier League heading for £6bn revenues

Deloitte's annual review of football finance highlights the way in which the Premier League continues to forge ahead.

As the Premier League celebrates 30 years since the start of its first ever season (1992/93), Deloitte has charted its success throughout, tracking remarkable growth in the financial scale and global appeal of the competition.

In 2020/21 average revenue per Premier League club exceeded the collective 1992/93 total for the fourth time, with total revenue up over 2,400% at £4.9 billion.

Entering its fourth decade, there is an optimistic outlook as Premier League clubs’ revenue is expected to exceed £6 billion in the 2022/23 season as a result of the new broadcast deals, the return to full stadia and improved commercial deals.

In 2020/21 the ‘big five’ European leagues generated €15.6 billion in aggregate revenue, up 3% relative to the prior season, but significantly below revenues observed prior to COVID-19 (€17.0 billion in 2018/19).

The theme of polarisation has been ever present in European football and has been exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19. The Premier League today may be further ahead of the competition than ever before. Concerningly, when excluding the Premier League, the ‘big five’ reported increased total operating losses during the year, increasing from €461m to €901m.

Premier League clubs’ revenues increased by 8% to c.£4.9 billion in 2020/21 following the previous season’s drop, which was the first year-on-year fall in total revenue in the Premier League’s history.

This increase is largely due to a c.£1 billion (43%) increase in broadcast revenue, owing to rebates and deferrals in the previous (19/20) season. The impact of this on overall revenue, however, was diminished by the absence of fans for the majority of the season, which resulted in a loss of over £0.5 billion in matchday revenues.

With the return of full stadia, along with new broadcast deals and improved commercial deals, the outlook for future Premier League clubs’ revenues is optimistic, with overall revenue projected to surpass £6 billion in the 2022/23 season.

The EFL

All three of the EFL’s divisions saw aggregate club revenues fall in 2020/21. League One clubs were worst affected with aggregate revenues down 22%, compared to a reduction of 12% and 4% in the Championship and League Two respectively.

This decline meant average wages surpassed average revenue among League One clubs for the first time, while this was the case for the fourth consecutive year in the Championship.

With over 90% of Championship clubs operating at a loss in 2020/21, it’s clear that many will need to improve the future balance between their costs and their revenues, encouraged by the EFL’s regulations and clubs’ obligations under the loan schemes initiated in 2020. There now can be no doubt that significant change is required to drive long-term sustainability, without the need for continual owner funding at this level.


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