The Premier League continued to maintain its significant revenue advantage over its closest rivals in 2017/18, having generated a combined €5.4bn, up from €5.3bn in 2016/17. In revenue terms, the English top flight is now 72% larger than the Bundesliga; however, its wages/revenue ratio worsened in the 2017/18 season to 59%, following a 15% increase in wage spend.

The start of the German Bundesliga’s new broadcast deal contributed to an uplift of c.€290m in broadcast revenues and saw them replace La Liga as the second largest revenue-generating league in the world.

La Liga clubs’ revenues broke the €3bn barrier for the first time after growth of 7%. The increase was in part driven by Real Madrid’s third consecutive UEFA Champions League triumph in the 2017/18 season, coupled with Barcelona’s commercial growth, which included a new four-year shirt sponsorship with Rakuten. The two powerhouses of Spanish football took the top two places in the 2019 Deloitte Football Money League.

Italy’s Serie A continued to struggle to keep pace with the revenue growth seen in England, Germany and Spain. While revenue rose by 8% (to €2.2bn), it was not enough to narrow the ever-increasing gap. The league’s wage cost increases were slower than the other ‘big five’ leagues and this resulted in the lowest wages/revenue ratio (66%) since the 2005/06 season. Despite this, Juventus’ acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo and other transfer activity in the 2018 summer window is likely to result in wage increases in the 2018/19 season.

The French top-tier, Ligue 1, continued to generate the least revenue of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues (€1.7bn), with reductions in both broadcast and sponsorship revenue being offset by increases in matchday and other commercial income. The league must wait until 2020/21 for its next significant broadcast rights increase, when domestic rights values are set to increase by over 55%, to around €1.2bn per season, greater than the current domestic rights value of Serie A (€1bn) and similar to the domestic rights fees currently received by La Liga.

Beyond the big five

Beyond the ‘big five’ European football leagues, the Russian Premier League (€813m) surged ahead of the Turkish Süper Lig (€731m) to take its place as the sixth-highest revenue generating top-tier league in Europe, driven by a new broadcast rights deal and increased matchday revenues resulting from stadia improvements and developments for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.