By David Owen
June 6 – Aggregate revenue at English Premier League clubs is projected to surge through the £3 billion barrier next season, on the back of the league’s new broadcast deals, according to the latest report by professional services firm Deloitte. The 22nd Annual Review of Football Finance compiled by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group says that Premier League clubs’ revenues nudged up 4% in 2011-12 to a record £2.36 billion.
This put the English elite far ahead of any other European league, with Germany, Spain and Italy each generating revenue of between £1.3 billion and £1.5 billion, and France further back on £900 million.
In terms of profitability, the much-vaunted Bundesliga – which supplied both teams, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, in the 2013 UEFA Champions League final – again came out on top in 2011-12, however, with operating profits of £154 million against the Premier League’s £98 million.
Deloitte said this Premier League figure was equivalent to a margin of “only 4%” of revenue.
Half of the clubs, it said, made an operating loss.
Almost 75% of Premier League clubs’ revenue increase in 2011-12 was spent on wages.
This increased by £64 million, or 4%, to £1.7 billion, leaving the widely-watched wage:revenue ratio static at 70%.
Net debt in respect of Premier League clubs was £2.4 billion, 59% of which took the form of non-interest-bearing ‘soft loans’.
Clubs recorded a carrying value of tangible fixed assets of almost £1.9 billion, partly reflecting investment in facilities over recent decades.
The total European football market attained a record £15.7 billion, or €19.4 billion.
Adam Bull, senior consultant in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, said next season’s expected Premier League revenue upsurge would amount to “around £600 million”, or nearly 25%.
His colleague, Alan Switzer, said this imminent boost to broadcast revenues, coupled with the successful implementation of enhanced financial regulations designed to improve the sustainability of Premier League clubs, could provide “huge benefits to the long-term development, growth and stability of the game and its clubs”.