Net transfer spending by the EPL—the amount, after deals between English clubs has been stripped out, which flowed abroad—was £370m. This compares with £130m in France’s Ligue 1 and a £95m surplus in Spain’s La Liga. This suggests that, while the biggest continental clubs can compete, the financial gulf between the average Premiership club and their European counterparts is growing.
The main reason for its continued clout is a huge new television deal, which will run for the next three seasons. It will be worth an extra £600m to the EPL this year, with each club at least £25m better off. In 2011-12, the last season for which accounts are available, broadcasting accounted for half of clubs’ combined £2.4 billion of revenue. The remainder was split between match day revenue—mostly gate receipts—and commercial activities, such as sponsorship and merchandising. Deloitte estimates that, for the coming season, clubs’ revenue will increase to £3.1 billion, with the proportion coming from broadcasting rising to 55%.
