Premier League clubs continue to defy global recession

Premier League clubs continue to defy the global recession as a new report shows revenue from the top 20 teams in England reached a record £1.981 billion in 2008-09 and is likely to have exceeded two billion pounds in the 2009-10 season.

According to the latest Annual Review of Football Finance from the Sport Business Group at Deloitte, new broadcast contracts will drive a further increase in revenues to £2.2 billion in 2010-11.

In total, the 92 English clubs saw revenues increase by £100 million to over 2.5 billion in the 2008-09 season.

Dan Jones, Partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: "Despite the sharp economic contraction, Premier League clubs were able to increase revenues by three per cent in 2008-09.

"Whilst commercial income fell marginally, both matchday and broadcasting revenues increased. For the 2009-10 season just ended, combined attendances for the Premier League and Football League exceeded 30 million - a level not seen since well before the introduction of all seated stadia.

"When you factor in the recently negotiated Premier League overseas broadcast deals, which come into effect from 2010-11, football has shown remarkable recession resistance during these difficult economic times."

While the overall picture remains bright for English football's big-guns, the problems of Portsmouth, who last season became the first Premier League club to go into administration, show that owners of less powerful teams must keep a tighter rein on spending.

The Deloitte report shows that Premier League clubs' operating profits more than halved from £185 million in 2007-08 to £79 million in 2008-09.

"The challenge for clubs continues to be converting their impressive year on year revenue growth into sustainable levels of profits that allow for continued investment in infrastructure and talent," Jones said.

"This is particularly the case as credit is likely to remain less available to football clubs than it was two or three years ago."

The £49 million increase in Premier League clubs' revenue was less than half the 132 million increase in wage costs, driving total wages up to more than £1.3 billion.

Gross transfer spending by Premier League clubs also increased from £664 million in 2007-08 to a record £713 million in 2008-09.

Meanwhile, the report showed Premier League clubs generated the highest revenue (two billion pounds) of any league in Europe in 2008-09, followed by Germany, Spain and Italy (each £1.3 billion).

However, the Premier League lost its status as the most profitable football league in the world for the second time in three years, again to the Bundesliga.