Premier League rules the roost

The Premier League continues to dominate European football, according to the latest annual financial report from Deloitte Sports Business.   The EFL's combined revenue was more than £1 billion with the biggest percentage increase in League One: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65901519

Its forensic analysis details that just shy of €30billion (£25.6bn; $32.5bn) was generated by European clubs across the 2021-22 season. Covid-19 might have applied the brakes but the accelerator is back to being squeezed with growth of seven per cent year on year.The European football market has expanded by almost €10billion since 2012-13 — a billion for every season, if you like — and central to the continued uplift is the Premier League. All by itself, English football’s top division now generates €6.4billion (£5.5bn) per year. Spain’s La Liga, its nearest competitor, only just turned over half of that sum last season.

In the women’s game, the upward trajectory is even steeper, with 60 per cent growth year on year in the English Football Association’s Women’s Super League.

Deloitte’s 32nd Annual Review depicts a sport with a widening appeal and enduring interest levels post-pandemic, but also reveals devils in the detail. Revenue growth is being outpaced by wage increases and operating profits are also in decline.

The English top flight generated €3.49billion through TV revenues in 2021-22: more than Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 lumped together thanks to enormous broadcasting deals at home and overseas.

It has been forecast that Manchester City, as title winners again, will bank in the region of £186million from the Premier League, up on the £153m of the previous campaign. Placed in context, that alone will be equivalent to the average annual revenue of two Ligue 1 clubs.

West Ham United who enjoyed handsome returns from a run to the Europa League semi-finals last season, were seventh in the Premier League’s turnover table with a £255million but they were barely a dot in sixth-placed Arsenal’s wing mirror. Even without European football, Mikel Arteta’s side still had revenues of £368million. Tottenham, in fifth, had £443million.

The Big Six’s share of wage costs increased one per cent to 52 per cent, with an additional £192million spent on wages across the division. In layman’s terms, for every £1 spent on wages by Premier League clubs, 52p of that goes to a footballer playing for Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal or Chelsea.