Accordingly, the league’s wage/revenue ratio rose from 58 percent to 61 percent, but Jones said: “This represents the second lowest level since 2004-05 and is 10 percentage points lower than in 2012-13.
“In fact, in the last two years, only 30 percent of revenue increases have been consumed by wage growth, whereas in the five years to 2012-13 this figure was 99 percent.”
Reflecting the clamour to get into the lucrative Premier League, wage costs in the second-tier Championship rose four percent to £541 million.
Despite a reduction in the wages/revenue ratio from 106 percent in 2013-14 to 99 percent, Deloitte said the level of spending by Championship clubs remained “unsustainable” without owner funding.
The value of promotion to the Premier League for next season — secured by Burnley, Middlesbrough and play-off winners Hull City — has been estimated at £170 million per club.
More widely, the combined revenue for the five major European leagues — England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France — reached a new record of 12 billion euros, a rise of six percent.
The Bundesliga (316 million euros) and Spain’s La Liga (264 million euros) — home of this season’s Champions League winners Real Madrid and runners-up Atletico Madrid, as well as Europa League champions Sevilla — also generated profits.
But clubs in Italy’s Serie A (-133 million euros) and France’s Ligue 1 (-35 million euros) generated combined operating losses. France was the only nation of the so-called ‘big five’ not to record revenue growth.
Deloitte said that the financial performances of each of the five leagues was “heavily influenced by a small collection of globally pre-eminent clubs”.
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