Combined revenues of all Premier League clubs rose 11% to break through the £6bn barrier for the first time, new figures from Deloitte reveal. Tony McDonough reports
Combined record revenues from England’s top tier clubs have strengthened the English Premier League’s (EPL) status as the richest league in the world.
New figures released as part of the Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance reveal combined revenues from the 20 EPL clubs soared 11% to £6.1bn. This put it top of the table of the biggest five European leagues for the 2022/23 season.
Next was the German Bundesliga where clubs generated a total of £3.2bn, followed by Spain’s LaLiga at £2.96bn, Serie A in Italy which generated £2.45bn and France’s Ligue 1 which saw a little over £2bn. Combined revenues from all five leagues was £16.6bn.
Not unsurprisingly, Manchester City’s revenues were highest at £698.4m followed by Manchester United at £630.7m. Liverpool were the third highest in the EPL with revenues of £594m. Everton reported revenues of £172.2m, £8.9m lower than the previous year.
Real Madrid saw the highest revenues of any European club, coming in at just above £703m. Paris St Germain saw revenues of £678m and Barcelona £676.5m.
Revenue performance of the EPL clubs was driven by a 14% rise in matchday revenue (£867m), as a new record average league attendance was set. There was also a £221m year-on-year increase in commercial revenue (to £2bn) and a 9% uptick in broadcast revenue (to £3.2bn).
Revenues of clubs across the entire European football market grew by 16% to £29.8bn in the 2022/23 season, according to the 33rd Annual Review of Football Finance published by the Deloitte Sports Business Group.
Total wage costs in the EPL increased by 10% to surpass £4bn for the first time. However, despite annual growth in wages (£377m) being lower than growth in revenue (£603m), rising wage costs and amortisation adversely impacted pre-tax losses in the EPL, which increased by 14% to £685m.
Overall, Premier League clubs’ operating profits (excluding player trading) fell by 18% to £393m, as other operating expenses increased to £1.6bn, driven in part by inflation.
Net debt of clubs in 2022/23 rose from £2.7bn to £3.1bn (up £473m), largely driven by funding for infrastructure projects.
While revenues in the Premier League hit new heights, clubs in the Bundesliga and Serie A recorded the largest average percentage growth over the previous season (22%), due in part to the full return of fans to stadia in Germany and Italy.
Tim Bridge, lead partner in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said: “The 2022 FIFA World Cup, the lifting of final COVID-19 restrictions, and the fervour of fans engaging with football has led to strong growth in the European football market in 2022/23.
“As plans and conversations continue across leagues in terms of further regulation and investment, European football is sitting at an inflection point.
“Football is growing into an ever more globally connected game, and this brings new challenges to maintaining competitive balance, strong governance and regulation.
“Leaders across the industry must provide a united front in following good governance principles to build a future for European football that fans, players, and partners across leagues can be excited for.”
The English Football League (EFL), comprising the Championship, League One and League Two, registered aggregate revenue of £1.1bn in the 2022/23 season.
Championship clubs recorded total revenue of £749m in the 2022/23 season, a 10% increase (from £678m) compared to 2021/22.
This was largely a result of the club mix, with five clubs in receipt of parachute payments contributing an aggregate of around £200m (27%) of the league’s total revenue.
Championship club revenues exceeded wage costs (£706m) for the first time since 2016/17, with a wage/revenue ratio of 94%.
However, the second-tier clubs remained heavily loss making as the league registered operating losses of £316m, with no single Championship club generating an operating profit (before player trading).
In January LBN revealed annual revenues at Tranmere Rovers hit £5.45m, just a fraction down on the £5.48m reported a year earlier. However, pre-tax losses widened significantly from £290,000 in the previous year to £1.37m.
Deloitte’s analysis highlights that Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs generated £48m in aggregate revenue in the 2022/23 season, the first season following the Lionesses’ EURO 2022 triumph, a rise of 50% on 2021/22 (£32m).
The findings show that WSL clubs’ revenue more than doubled over two seasons, with aggregate WSL club revenue standing at £20m in 2020/21.
Further growth is predicted, with revenue forecast to reach £52m in the 2023/24 season and to rise to £68m in 2024/25.