LONDON. Aug 7: The Premier league is the richest soccer league in the world but there is a growing
gulf between England’s top flight and the lower divisions, according to a financial report released Thursday, reports AP.
The Premier league generated total revenues of 464 million pounds 754 million dollars in the 1996-97 season, the Deloitte and Touche annual review of sgccer finance said.
The 20 clubs generated an average annual income of 23.2 million pounds (37.7 million dollars), the report found.
Total revenue of English soccer increased by 31 per cent last season to 675.7 million pounds (1.1 billion dollars), with the Premier league contributing 68 per cent.
By comparison. Italy's Serie A generated income of 377 million pounds (613 million dollars). with the clubs turning over an average 20.9 million pounds (34 million dollars).
The Spanish Premera Liga grossed 232 million pounds (377 million dollars), with Spanish clubs averaging 11.6 million pounds (18.85 million dollars).
The English Premier league
is growing further ahead of its international rivals but the Football League clubs (Divisions One. Two and Three) are also starting to lose ground to it.
The five top clubs in the Premier League — Manchester United. Arsenal. Newcastle. Liverpool and Aston Villa — had a combined turnover greater than the combined turnover of all 72 Football League clubs.
The Premier league clubs had an average operating profit of 4.3 million pounds (7 million dollars), while the clubs in all three Football League competitions averaged operational losses.
Gerry Boon, head of the Deloitte and Touche football industry team, said revenue from broadcasting going into the top clubs made England's major domestic competition the richest in the world.
"It’s little wonder so many top overseas players want to play in the Premier league," Boon said.
Some top-flight players are earning 30,000 pounds (48.750 dollar) a week, while the average wage for Premier league players increased by 35 per cent in 1996-97. compared with a 27 per cent increase for England’s
other professional soccer players.
Boon said the money going into English soccer was subsidising increased player salaries and transfer deals but was bypassing smaller clubs.
"Except for a handful of wellmanaged Football League clubs, the day-to-day business of football is profitable only in the Premier league,” Boon said.
The review indicated that other English clubs with Premier league ambitions were continuing to spend heavily to buy players to achieve their goal, but the strategy would be impossible to maintain.
Salaries at 12 clubs exceeded their annual turnovers, while a further 35 clubs paid out more than two-thirds of their turnovers in wages.
"As the Bosman ruling (free transfers for non-contracted European Union players) has more of an effect, clubs will pay more to lock in their top names and to attract the players free to move — particularly big-name stars from overseas." Boon said.