By Tony Attwood
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These are actual figures as reported in Arsenal’s report and accounts posted at Companies House…. (Last season’s figures are not published yet). Figures are in millions of pounds.
| Year to May ’23 | Year to May ’24 | Year to May ’25 | |
| International league… | Europa Lge | Champs Lge | Champs Lge |
| Club income | |||
| Matches | £103 | 132 | 154 |
| Broadcast | £191 | 262 | 278 |
| Commercial & Retail | £169 | 218 | 268 |
| Player loans | £2 | 2 | |
| Total Football revenue | 465 | 613 | 690 |
| Other | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Costs: | |||
| Football costs wages core | 235 | 328 | 347 |
| Football costs other | 112 | 147 | 200 |
| Amortisation of squad | 157 | 172 | 187 |
| Depreciation | 17 | 18 | 20 |
| Property & loans | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Total costs | 522 | 665 | 756 |
| Loss | -55 | -49 | -65 |
| Player sales | 9 | 49 | 82 |
| Interest and charges | -6 | -18 | -18 |
| Overall loss | 52 | 28 | 1 |
Now overall in 2024/25, Premier League clubs had a turnover of £6.8 billion, which was a rise of 8% on the previous season which was £6.3 billion. This was at the top end of the range of the ‘big six’ clubs (including Arsenal of course) which drives the bulk of the Premier League’s income.
At the same time English football still tends to be increasingly popular across Europe and so more money is generally brought in from the sale of broadcasting rights each year. And as a result of this growing interest in the very top level of English football so there has been a rise in commercial revenue of 13%, with about three quarters of this being generated by the big six clubs.
Also the Premier League benefits from the variety of winners it can produce, although of course the attempted domination of the league by Manchester City has reduced the impact of this – at least for a while. It would appear that beyond the individual clubs that people support, those observing the leagues like to see different teams winning the leagues rather than Manchester City, Bayern Munich and PSG for example, winning their leagues, year after year. But these clubs have become dominant and make it hard for other clubs to challenge them.
But a gradual move away from such domination has undoubtedly helped the rise in revenue. And it is also interesting that two clubs outside of the group at the top have seen a serious growth in mathday income through having some success in Europe (Tottenham Hots and Manchester U), as well as Arsenal (whose position in the league and cups has improved year by year.)
But now we have a problem: revenue is increasing because of the success in Europe of three English teams – clubs that have also generated significant followings in Europe. That might be fine for England, but it doesn’t actually enthuse other European clubs to see supporters drop their affinity to their local team, and look instead toward a club in another country.
Yet there is no guarantee of English club profitability – for it is not guaranteed that the same six clubs will dominate English football each year. Indeed, English clubs’ wages rose by almost 10% last year – a figure that can’t be sustainable at clubs which are already losing money. Indeed, in Europe only eight clubs made a profit, as opposed to 13 the year before!
There is also a growing feeling that those supporters interested in any data beyond the league tables are quite happy to read free-to-access reports on the internet rather than any data they have to pay for. Effectively for most fans, all the stats and data they are interested in, are available for free. (I would exclude “Swiss Ramble” from this, to which I subscribe, but that’s about the only one).
Club income is rising because of extra games in the Champions League etc and ground improvements such as the new Tottenham ground can help. Likewise revenue from TV and radio continues to hold up but there is a limit to the number of games that can be shown. Also companies outside of football continue to believe in football as a good investment for sponsorship and advertising, and clubs themselves are expanding their retail business, although this remains a small proportion of their income.
But all things have a limit. Fans might buy three shirts but in terms of shirt sales etc some clubs seem to be approaching this maximum – while the cost of buying and paying players (and indeed Arsenal’s case the manager,) continues to rise.
Clubs can’t go beyond the 25 players aged over 21 they employ (most are now running at 22 or 23 players) and they can reign in appearance fees. If the Manchester City finances are brought under control, that too could reduce the demand for ever higher salaries.
At the moment clubs find it hard to say “we can’t pay that salary” when ManC is there to do so. But if Manc’s financial cheating is removed from the scene, that more than anything else could make the Premier League once more both competitive and sustainable.
ManC are of course resistant, but really, the long term future of the Premier League as we know it does depend on brining that club under financial control.
