Football is one of the most popular sports in the world, but for most people, the action on the pitch is the only focus. Finances are something most of us don’t consider, but there is a phenomenal amount of money involved in the game, especially the Premier League. Freetips.com looks at some of the financial news from the top London clubs.
When it comes to the pre-tax profits for the Premier League in the last season, it seems that Tottenham and Arsenal along with Liverpool were responsible for 75% of the total. This information has been published in a report by Deloitte which puts the total revenue from all 20 of the top flight teams at a rather massive £4.8 billion. The report also shows that for four out of the last five years these Premier League teams made a substantial combined profit. For the 2017/19 this was recorded at £800 million, although it was more in 2016/17 coming in at £900 million, neither of which we would mind having as our final profit. It is fantastic to think that three-quarters of that amount was from three clubs, two of which are London clubs.
If we look at Spurs contribution, it is likely that this down to stadium changes and their move to Wembley while their own White Hart Lane stadium capable of housing 62,000 fans was constructed. They also picked up a lucrative kit contract with giants Nike which would have further added to their money.
The head of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, Dan Jones who is also a partner in the company said “Tottenham’s relocation to Wembley Stadium and increased commercial activity, including the commencement of their new kit deal with Nike, contributed more than half of the Premier League’s matchday revenue growth and almost a quarter of the Premier League’s commercial revenue growth respectively, driving the club’s record levels of pre-tax profitability. We have seen clubs’ wage expenditure increase at a faster rate than revenue growth in 2017/18. This is the same pattern as observed in the second year of the previous Premier League broadcast rights cycles, as clubs continue to invest in playing talent. Fifty-nine per cent is the lowest wages/revenue ratio outside the first year of a broadcast rights cycle since the 1998/99 season.”
In terms of numbers Spurs set something of a world-record when their profits after tax were announced in the 2017/18 season which saw them end up with £113m, which beat the previous record set by Liverpool of £106m. For Arsenal, the figures were not as high, but they were still one of the top three and recorded post-tax profits of £56.5m which is undoubtedly still pretty impressive. Overall across the league, the fall in profits from £900m to £800m is thought to be down to the 15% wage increase which was £2.9b overall. It is safe to say it is still an industry that has enormous financial power and money most of us can only dream of.
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