Manchester United will go into the 2008-09 season with
the biggest financial war chest in the history of football. Figures
released yesterday showed that massive television income has
boosted payments to the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs by almost
£300million.
Payments for last season ranged from £29.1 million for Derby
County, who were relegated as the worst Premier League club on
record, to the £49.3 million handed out to United as champions.
United can expect another £30 million if they beat Chelsea to win
the Champions League final next week. That will give the club the
biggest payout in world football.
United's championship-winning earnings consist of a flat fee of
£22.8million paid to every club as part of an equal share of the
revenue pouring into the Premier League's coffers from television
broadcasting deals, worth a total of £2.7 billion over three years.
As the most-watched club in the country, United took a further
£12.1million from the 25 live matches in which they featured, while
their merit payment, or prize-money for finishing top of the
Premier League, was £14.4million. By contrast, Derby's earnings
from television appearances were a guaranteed minimum payment for
the least-watched clubs of £5.6million, while their merit money was
a paltry £720,000.
Premier League executives insist the new payment structure
ushered in by the record television deal is fairer to small clubs,
although the gap between top and bottom has widened from
£15.3million to more than £20million. However, all Premier League
clubs will receive a huge increase in their payments, with some
almost doubling their money: Aston Villa will reap £42.3million
after finishing in sixth place, compared with the £22.4million they
collected in the 2006-07 season.
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Everton, too, have earned a huge improvement, with their fifth
place, banking a cheque of £42.1million, compared with £25.3million
last year.
Chelsea's dour style, though, has cost them: Newcastle United
followed Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool into fourth place
as the team most shown on live television. The result was that
Newcastle earned almost £10million from 20 live screenings, while
Chelsea had 18, bringing them £9.1million.
Just how important that final-day escape from relegation was to
Fulham is demonstrated by the Premier League figures. Even
finishing fourth from bottom on goal difference was worth
£31.3million and the club can expect to earn at least the same
again if they can survive next season.
Leaving the Premier League drastically reduces income, even if
some of the television revenues trickle down to the lower levels of
football. Clubs relegated from the Premier League - Reading,
Birmingham City and Derby this season - receive “parachute
payments” for the first two seasons outside the top flight to
soften their landing in the second tier. These payments are up from
almost £6.5million to £11.4million, a significant amount in the
Coca-Cola Championship, where broadcasting revenues are on average
about a tenth of that figure.
The figure of £125million split between payments to the Football
League, charities and other good causes in Britain and abroad puts
the extraordinary amount of money pumping through English football
into context - ten years ago, £125million was the Premier League's
total turnover. The Football League's share of this is
£77.4million, which includes £45.6million-worth of parachute
payments, plus another £31.8million in payments to clubs and cash
for youth development and community schemes.
The Football League will today announce attendance figures of
more than 16million for its three divisions in 20007-08. Although
the figure is thought to have dipped slightly, Lord Mawhinney, the
League chairman, will point out that attendances still outnumber
Serie A, in Italy, and are among the biggest in the world.
Television revenue for 2007-08 season
(2006-07 in brackets)
Manchester United £49.3m (£32m)
Chelsea £45.6m (£30.9m)
Arsenal £47m (£29m)
Liverpool £45.4m (£28.4m)
Everton £42.1m (£25.3m)
Aston Villa £42.3m (£22m)
Blackburn Rovers £40.2m (£22m)
Portsmouth £40.4m (£23m)
Manchester City £39.7m (£21m)
West Ham United £36.8m (£21.1m)
Tottenham Hotspur £36m (£27.3m)
Newcastle United £39.2m (£21.2m)
Middlesbrough £34.2m (£20.5m)
Wigan Athletic £33.4m (£18.4m)
Sunderland £33.6m (£6.5m*)
Bolton Wanderers £32m (£24.6m)
Fulham £31.3m (£20.4m)
Reading £30.6m (£23.6m)
Birmingham City £29.8m (£6.5m*)
Derby County £29.1m (n/a)
Total £815,175,812 (£502,533,570)
* denotes parachute payment for clubs promoted from the
Coca-Cola Championship.
The total payout to the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs,
excluding parachute payments, was £758.2m (up from £463.6m in
2006-07).
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