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To them that hath shall be given

Seven Premier League clubs reported a pre-tax profit in 2021/22. Not only did Manchester City lead the way with £42m, but they were also the only club to post a profit in each of the last two seasons. Good money was also made in particular by Burnley £36m, Brentford £30m and Brighton £24m.

In stark contrast, huge losses were posted by Manchester United, whose £150m deficit included £62m interest payable, and Chelsea £121m.

Over the last 10 years only three Premier League clubs have been profitable, namely Tottenham £203m, Liverpool £153m and Burnley £125m. It might come as a surprise to some, but the largest losses in this period were made by Everton £420m and Aston Villa £399m, ahead of Chelsea £383m.

In 2021/22 only two Premier League clubs managed to generate operating profits, namely Brentford £26m and West Ham £22m, while no fewer than eight clubs lost more than £50m, including a spectacular £224m at Chelsea - and that was before Todd Boehly’s huge recruitment spree.

Over the last decade Chelsea were comfortably the worst with a £944m operating loss, though Aston Villa and Everton were no slouches, losing £598m and £583m respectively. Only three clubs posted operating profits: Manchester United £221m, Tottenham £56m and Burnley £28m.

In fairness to Chelsea, their business model has been built on offsetting operating losses with profits from player sales, so their £123m gain in 2021/22 was once again the highest in the Premier League, followed by Aston Villa £97m.

In the last 10 years Chelsea’s £706m profit from player trading is nearly twice as much as the next best club, Liverpool £385m. Of the Big Six, Manchester United have been particularly poor, only generating £133m profit.

In 2021/22 Manchester City had the highest revenue in England (and indeed the world) with £613m, closely followed by Liverpool £594m and Manchester United £583m. There was then a fairly large gap of more than £100m to Chelsea £481m, Tottenham £443m and Arsenal £369m.

However, all of the Big Six were at least £100m more than the 7th placed club, West Ham £253m. Indeed, they accounted for £3.1 bln (57%) of the Premier League’s revenue with the other 14 clubs only having £2.4 bln (43%).

Given the increases in UEFA’s TV money, it is likely that this disparity will only widen.

 


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