Premier League wage bill climbs to £2.9bn as revenues hit record £4.8bn

Premier League clubs’ wage bill rose by 15% to £2.9bn in the 2017-18 season. The combined revenues of the 20 clubs in England’s top tier clubs rose to a record £4.8bn in 2017/18, up 6% on the previous season, according to figures collated by Deloitte.

But the collective wage bill rose 15 per cent to £2.9bn, pushing down operating profits across the league.

Having five teams each reaching at least the last 16 of the Uefa Champions League helped push revenue to £4.8bn, according to analysis from Deloitte.

But the high transfer fees paid out by clubs also helped push up wages.

Profit before tax was down to about £400 million for the clubs, a reduction from about £500m a year earlier.

Tim Bridge, Director, Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “The increased wage expenditure was expected given the busy transfer market in the 2017-18 season, with two record transfer windows driving estimated Premier League gross spend of £1.9bn.”

However, he said, broadcast fees are only likely to rise by a small amount in the next three years.

“With the emphasis now on clubs to generate revenue growth from sources other than central broadcast distributions, it may be that we see the levels of pre-tax profit diminish over the next few years,” he said.

The “big six” clubs; Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham accounted for 89% of the league’s pre-tax profits, according to financial data firm Vysyble.