On January 19, the auditing company Deloitte published an annual report on the financial condition of top clubs.

One of the most interesting chapters is profitability. The dominance of the Premier League is clearly visible.

Several observations.

• Total club revenue of €9.2bn, 13% more than in 2020/21 and the same as in 2019/20. In addition, clubs’ combined commercial income increased by 8% (from €3.5bn to €3.8bn).

The club’s average revenue increased to €462m, up €51m from last year but still below the record €464m from 2019.

• For the first time in the history of publication of reports, more than half of the teams from the list represent one country. 11 out of 20 places were taken by Premier League clubs: Man City, Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham, Leicester, Leeds, Everton , Newcastle. And taking into account the top 30, there are 16 of them in general!

• Manchester City top for the second year in a row, with Real Madrid (2nd), Chelsea (8th) and Inter (14th) retaining their positions from last year. The positions of other teams have changed.

An interesting detail: Man City is not the leader in any of the presented indicators – all have better clubs, and in general, City are only in tenth place in matchday income. But everything is more or less balanced. €373m is City’s record revenue, €70m more than last year.

• Liverpool climbed to number three for the first time in the report’s 26-year history, with record commercial revenue, record TV revenue and record matchday revenue.

• Barcelona and Real Madrid are failing to reach pre-pandemic income levels. The covid hit Barca especially hard: compared to the 2018/19 season, the income of the Catalans decreased by 203 million euros, the income of Real Madrid – by 43 million. while competitors are recovering.

• PSG, for example, has fully recovered from the coronavirus in terms of revenues and leads in some indicators (for example, in matchday revenue). Funny moment: the Parisians have a salary sheet of 111% of income, this is the only such club in the top 20 (next to Newcastle and Everton, which have this figure at the level of 95-96%).

• For the first time since the 2018/19 season, a new club has entered the top 10: Arsenal (10th), having surpassed Juventus (11th) compared to last year’s rankings.

• Leeds were in the top 20 for the first time since the 2002/03 season, finishing 18th in the rankings.

• For the first time in two years, Zenit fell out of not only the top 20 most profitable clubs in the world, but also out of the top 30.

• For the first time, revenues were also analyzed for women’s clubs, with Barcelona (€7.7m in revenue), Manchester United (€6m) and Manchester City (€5.1m) the richest.

The reason for the dominance of the Premier League is the growth of TV revenues. It is not seen in other leagues

Deloitte notes that the Premier League is the only one of the top championships that has managed to increase the overall income from the sale of media rights. At the same time, income from abroad now exceeds domestic ones.

“The question now is whether other leagues can close the gap by raising the cost of overseas rights, or whether the Premier League will become virtually untouchable,” said Tim Bridge, lead partner at Deloitte Sports Business Group.