Premier League clubs made an overall profit for the first time in 16 years following the introduction of Financial Fair Play rules in 2013.
The regulations, which crucially restricted to £4 million the extra money from the hugely increased TV deals the clubs could spend on wages, led to players’ pay increasing by only around 5.5 percent, while overall income boomed by 22 percent.
In 2013-14, the year for which the 20 clubs have most recently published their accounts, 15 made a profit, and the Premier League recorded a profit collectively of £198 million. That was a dramatic transformation from 2012-13, the last of the previous three-year £3.7 billion TV deals, when 12 of the 20 clubs made a loss; five lost £50 million or more, and overall the world’s richest league made a total loss of £291 million.