Football League Finances

[davieG]

From the OS

League Clubs Revenue Hits £460m

The Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance has reported that the combined turnover of the 72 member clubs of The Football League rose by 5% during the 2004/05 season and reached £460m - with the revenue of the 24 clubs in the Championship, alone, topping £300m. This figure cements The Championship's place as Europe's 6th richest league.

The report also confirms, yet again, the Championship Play-Off Final as the biggest single financial prize in world football, with the promotion to The Premiership being worth at least £40m to this year's winners Watford - a figure that is set to soar to £50m next season.

Additionally, Deloitte's report that wages across The League rose by 2%, to a total of £324m however the wages to turnover ratio fell to just over 70%, its lowest level since 1996/97, despite wages in The Championship almost reaching the record levels experienced in 2001/02.

One ongoing area of concern for League clubs is a further erosion of a traditional source of finance for clubs - the transfer system. The report shows that the level of wealth re-distributed from the Premier League to The Football League in the form of transfer payments slowed to £28m - its lowest level for three years.

The report also records the contribution that Football League clubs make to the public purse with clubs paying an estimated £158m in taxation.

[Jon the Hat]

One ongoing area of concern for League clubs is a further erosion of a traditional source of finance for clubs - the transfer system. The report shows that the level of wealth re-distributed from the Premier League to The Football League in the form of transfer payments slowed to £28m - its lowest level for three years.

That is scary. It's about time the FA introduced some kind of Football tax to push revenue downwards. There should be a bigger chunk of the Premier League Revenues filtered down all the way. Greedy bastard Prem players are taking all the money out, and it needs to stop.