A new TV deal was struck last year and revenues for the 2007/8 season have increased by almost £300million. Each club was awarded a standard payment of £22.8million as only part of a total of an astronomic £2.7 billion deal over three years.

Next every Premier League club then received an amount corresponding to how many times they were screened live - Manchester United were on the silver screen the most,  being shown 25 times and earned a further £12.1million total for these matches  – even the least shown clubs such as Derby County were given a minimum £5.6million payment.

A third revenue stream came from the Premier League in the shape of “merit payments” which relate to the finishing position achieved.  As Manchester United were top of the Premier League, they earned an additional £14.4million - but there is a yawning gap between top and bottom – Derby County earned a £720,000 merit payment from the Premier League for finishing bottom.

Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and even Newcastle were shown live more on TV than Chelsea – some would no doubt claim that this is because “Well you don’t play pretty football like we do!” etc etc blah blah (insert whatever spurious jump on the hate Chelsea bandwagon comment you can think of) but my own feeling is that we were only very recently challenging for the league title (Newcastle?  Why were they shown more than us?  Keegan?  Got me there!).  Newcastle earned almost £10million from 20 live screenings whilst we were shown 18 times, earning £9.1million.  Last season I think we were 1^st or 2^nd in TV money, so it is a bit disappointing.

Looking at the table below, we can see that the gap between top and bottom has increased from £15.3million to more than £20million when comparing the previous season’s figures, but despite this disparity, Premier League officials insist that the new payment structure is actually fairer to small clubs.  True, all Premier League clubs have received vastly increased payments (e.g. Aston Villa a £42.3million total consisting of the standard payment, quantity of live games shown and merit payment compared to the £22.4million received in the 2006-07 season) but we can see that even within the Premier League itself there is perhaps a disproportionate “rich richer, poor poorer” situation developing. 

What is also surprising is that the relegated clubs - Reading, Birmingham City and Derby – all receive what is termed “parachute payments” for up to two seasons if they still remain outside the top flight.  These payments have been increased from just under £6.5million to £11.4million.  These figures, at first glance, might not seem that much but when you consider TV revenues in the Coca Cola Championship are only about a tenth of that figure it makes you realise that relegated Premier League clubs still have a significant advantage over their new competitors.

It’s not all greed though, some £125million is split between payments to the Football League, charities and other causes – 10 years ago this figure was the total turnover of the Premier League!  The Football League receives 77.4million of this which includes £45.6million in parachute payments and £31.8million of revenue to be awarded to clubs for youth development and community schemes.

The Premier League is awash in cash at the moment and there’s still the small matter of Champions League revenue to be factored in (around an extra £30 million apparently for Chelsea and Manchester United) BUT when we look at the financial situation of some clubs the picture becomes a bit more sober – Manchester United for example, still owe some £50 odd million in unpaid transfers and roughly the same again in unpaid interest payments. 

What makes the sky even more cloudy for some clubs is that even with all the extra money flying around – a great deal of it will have eventually been trousered by the likes of Glazer, Hicks & Gillette, when they sell up and leave –leaving the fans, once more, to help pick up the tab for the next owners. 

The irony is that some of these clubs are the very same clubs that were behind forming the monster which the Premier League has now become, and indeed made them so attractive for the leveraged buy-outs which have snatched their own clubs from under them.  Their creation has eaten them - bit like Frankenstein!

Nothing like the good ol Corinthian spirit, hobnail boots and pints of bitter is there!

Revenues for 2007-08 season (from The Times)(2006-07 in brackets)

Manchester United £49.3m (£32m)Arsenal £47m (£29m)Chelsea £45.6m (£30.9m)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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