Football
ESPN staff 8y

Premier League pre-tax profits £120m, wages up six percent for 2014-15

Premier League clubs' combined profits fell year on year but they enjoyed two consecutive seasons in the black for the first time since 1999, with wage costs rising by six percent to top £2 billion last season.

The results for the 2014-15 season, published by Deloitte on Friday, also show that combined pre-tax profits fell to £120 million, from £190m the previous campaign. But the figure still represents the second-biggest aggregate pre-tax profit returned, after the record year of 2013-14.

The wages-to-revenue ratio is now 60 percent, and accounts for a record £2bn of expenditure by Premier League clubs. But with increased revenue streams from broadcast deals, wages-to-revenue continues to improve and is the second-lowest figure in the last 10 years.

Seventeen of the 20 Premier League clubs recorded a profit in 2014-15, with a record combined revenue of £3.4bn. Only Queens Park Rangers, Aston Villa and Chelsea failed to post a profit for the season. 

Total operating profits, which exclude transfer fees, were £550 million.

The figures are almost certain to improve from the 2016-17 season when the next round of television contracts begin, worth £5.2bn over three years -- a 70 per cent increase.

Before the current TV deal came in from 2013, clubs posted a combined pre-tax loss for the previous 14 seasons consecutively.

"The perennial problem for Premier League clubs was to convert impressive revenue growth into profitability," Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said.

"We saw this problem solved with record-breaking results last year. The new challenge was to sustain this financial success, and the Premier League clubs have accomplished this in impressive style in the latest results.

"With further significant revenue increases already guaranteed for the next broadcast cycle, starting in 2016-17, there is every reason to be confident of the Premier League clubs' profitability being here to stay."

Adam Bull, senior consultant at Deloitte, added: "Clubs now enjoy a significant revenue advantage over all but a handful of the biggest clubs from elsewhere in Europe.

"The security of world-leading revenues, now augmented with sustained profitability, aided by cost-control measures in place for both domestic and European competitions, makes clubs playing in the Premier League, and those with aspirations to get there, particularly attractive to investors from around the globe."

^ Back to Top ^