Deloitte’s Football Finance Review

Blog by pro-manchester comms manager, Mel Hill.

As the Premier League season started again this weekend, we take a look back at Deloitte’s Football Finance Review.

The review is the most comprehensive analysis of the financial trends in the football industry. For the past seven years, Deloitte has been hosting this event for pro-manchester members, and it was jam-packed once again.

Tim Bridge, Director at Deloitte presented their report, which is produced here in Manchester and distributed to sports industry contacts across the world.

The report particularly focuses on the English Premier League and Championship clubs and analyses the business drivers, financial trends and prospects for clubs.

So how is the global sports market changing?

While sport is very rarely affected by recessions, the global market has recently stumbled upon an inflexion point, which has been driven by new technology and change in consumer habits.

Content is now absolutely critical for players and sports clubs, in a world where social media is king. Competition for followers is only going to increase and it’s looking highly likely that eSports is likely to become a genuine competitor for “real-time” sports.

Manchester is one of the most followed footballing cities in the world (180.8m), trailing Madrid (242.2m) and Barcelona (207.2m) but far exceeding any other two club’s cities with Turin next in line with 74.9m followers.

What impact does sport have on the North West?

Of the top revenue generating sports clubs, from the North West Manchester United sit fourth, while Manchester City and Liverpool sit sixth and ninth respectively.

The North West’s 18 Premier League and Football League clubs generated combined revenues of circa £2bn in the 2017/18 season, which is impressively over a third of the £5.8bn generated by the top 92 clubs in English football.

Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool generated the three highest revenues and the three greatest levels of wage expenditure in the Premier League in 2017/18.

Despite their current form, Manchester United still have the highest revenue of all North West Premier league clubs, generating £590m in the 17/18 season, with Manchester City coming in second earning £503.5m.

An interesting morning once again at Deloitte, and one our members look forward to year-on-year.

If you’d like to delve deeper into the 28th Edition of their Annual Review of Football Finance, please click here.