English topflight clubs generated record revenues of £3.6bn, a 9% increase, in the final year of the league’s 2013-16 broadcast cycle, the firm said in its annual review of football finance. Revenus will continue to rise in the 2017/18 season, the review forecast.

Wage costs rose to 12% to £2.3bn and the Premier League showed little sign of austerity, with its 20 clubs recording a third consecutive season of operating profits in excess of £500m in the 2015/16 season.

Dan Jones, partner in Deloitte‘s Sports Business Group, said top clubs did well out of European competition.

«In the 2015/16 season, the ‘big six’ clubs participated in the group stages of UEFA competitions and benefitted from improved UEFA broadcast rights deals, which resulted in an increase in distributions to participating English clubs of around £100m,» he said.

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