Financial Dominance of the Premier League 2021/22

I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

It’s long been accepted that England’s Premier League has become the de facto Super League, thanks to its financial might, so it probably didn’t need Andrea Agnelli to reinforce this point earlier this year.

The former Juventus president said, “European football needs a new system. Otherwise, it risks a decrease in favour of a single dominant league, which within a few years will attract all the talent of European football, completely marginalising the other leagues.”

Even though his warning was somewhat diminished, given that his club was the subject of an investigation into various financial irregularities, he might just have had a point about the growing gulf between the Premier League and the rest of European football.

This dominance was again highlighted by the recent publication of Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance, which provided some useful comparisons of Europe’s major leagues.

Let’s take a deep dive into the results, looking at how the Premier League compares to its rivals. We will analyse the results for a number of metrics:

• Revenue (including broadcasting, match day and commercial)

• Wages

• Wage to turnover

• Operating profit/(loss)

• Transfers (sourced from Transfermarkt)

Big Five Leagues

The analysis will focus on the Big Five leagues, namely:

• Premier League (England)

• La Liga (Spain)

• Bundesliga (Germany)

• Serie A (Italy)

• Ligue 1 (France)

These leagues account for €17.2 bln revenue, which represented 58% of Europe’s €29.5 bln total in 2021/22. Ignoring the years distorted by the COVID pandemic, this is the second highest share ever, only surpassed by 59% in 2018/19.

However, the Big Five’s share has significantly increased in the last 10 years from 50% in 2012/13.

Revenue

Total revenue for the Big Five leagues surged to a new record of €17.2 bln in 2021/22, eclipsing the pre-pandemic high of €17.0 bln, though this was very largely driven by growth in the Premier League.

The Premier League is the clear market leader with its €6.4 bln revenue being nearly twice as much as its closest challenger, La Liga €3.3 bln. Put another way, England’s top flight is almost €1 bln more than the Bundesliga €3.1 bln and Serie A €2.4 bln combined.