MANCHESTER UNITED retained their title as football’s highest-earning club when Deloitte, a consultancy, released its annual Football Money League rankings this week. The Red Devils failed to qualify for the 2016-17 season of the lucrative Champions League, and had to settle for winning the Europa League, a second-tier international club competition. Nonetheless, even though the club’s success on the pitch paled in comparison with that of Real Madrid, who won both the Champions League and Spain’s La Liga, the broadcasting might of the English Premier League enabled Man U to remain at the top of the financial league table.

Deloitte’s rankings combine commercial deals such as sponsorships and shirt sales, match-day revenues and broadcast income. An ever-increasing share of clubs’ turnover now comes from the latter, reaching an all-time high of 45% last year. It is no surprise, then, that English teams comprise half of the top 20. The 2016-17 season was the first of a new three-year Premier League television deal worth around £2.8bn ($4bn) per season. This is more than double the value of the broadcasting deals struck by any of the other “big five” European leagues (those in Spain, Germany, France and Italy). As a result, Southampton FC made more money last season than AS Roma, and Leicester City’s Champions League run pushed them above Inter Milan.

Overall, football is in fine financial health. Clubs’ revenues rose across the board last year, with the top 20 collectively raking in €7.9bn ($9.8bn) compared with €3.9bn a decade ago. However the richest continued to pull ahead. The richest three clubs had a combined gross of €2bn, more than the total turnover of the eleven clubs ranked 20-30. And with analysts warning that the next round of football-rights auctions in Europe will be less frenzied as viewers opt for cheaper internet-video services, the market may be reaching a peak—at least for now.

Read more about the weakening market for football rights here