Q: How does a professional football club make money?
The main sources of revenue are:
ticket and food/drink sales at the stadium
TV rights
prize money
sponsors
selling club merchandise
Which sources do you think earn premier league teams the most money?
Estimated Revenue Breakdown for an Average Premier League Club
| Category | Specific Income Source | Estimated % of Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcasting (~50%) | 1. Domestic TV Rights (Equal share split between all clubs) | ~25% |
| 2. International TV Rights (Equal share of global broadcast deals) | ~15% | |
| 3. Prize Money, match broadcasts (Based on TV appearances & league finish) | ~10% | |
| Commercial (~35%) | 4. Main Kit & Shirt Sponsorship (Front-of-shirt and sleeve sponsors) | ~12% |
| 5. Kit Maker (Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc.) | ~8% | |
| 6. Stadium Name & Sponsors (Official beer, betting partners, etc.) | ~6% | |
| 7. Merchandise (Kit sales, club shop purchases) | ~5% | |
| 8. Non-Matchday Stadium Events (Concerts, conferences, stadium tours) | ~4% | |
| Matchday (~15%) | 9. General Ticket Sales (Season tickets and individual matchday tickets) | ~9% |
| 10. Corporate Hospitality & Matchday Catering (VIP boxes, premium seats, food) | ~6% |
*Data Source Estimate: Aggregated from Deloitte Annual Review of Football
The premier league has a rule: Teams can only spend 85% of their revenue on player-related costs (basically player wages, transfer fees, and agent fees)
In one season they can spend up to 115% of their revenue but they will pay a fine.
If they spend over 115% over 2 years, they will have a points deduction (e.g. 6 points will be taken away from their total).
deduct (verb), deduction (noun) = take away, minus
Recent punishments:
In 2023 Everton were deducted 8 points for making a loss of £20 million and £17 million pounds over their limit in the previous 2 seasons.
In 2023 Nottingham Forest were deducted 4 points for making losses £35 million over their limit
In 2009 Portsmouth were deducted 15 points and were given a transfer ban for failing to pay players for 3 months after they had run out of money.
transfer ban = a club can’t buy new players
Manchester City have won the Premier League 8 times in the last 15 years.
They won 4 years in a row between 2020 and 2024.
Why do you think they were so successful?
Their manager, Pep Guardiola, is considered the best manager in the world.
They have always had a team full of superstars… but to get these players they paid a lot of money to buy them and paid very high salaries.
Manchester City is owned by City Football Group, an Abu Dhabi holding company mainly controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. His brother is the president.
In 2026 Man City were found guilty of 114 charges related to systematic financial cheating over nine seasons (from 2009 to 2018).
found guilty = a judge said “he committed the crime)
In 2017 a hacker successfully hacked Man City and he could access their private emails. He released the emails 1 year later and they showed that Man City’s owner and senior executives had been cheating.
Man City’s charge fall into 3 categories:
1. "Fake" Sponsorships
Man City’s owners put £830 million of their own money but said the money came from their sponsors.
They used the extra money to buy the best players and pay the highest salaries
2. Under-the-Table Payments
The club was hiding their real costs. They filed fake financial accounts to hide the secret off-the-books payments made to players and managers.
off-the-books =
£7.5 million to to player’s agents
£8.8 million to the manager, Roberto Mancini. (120% of his “official” salary)
£125,000 to each family who’s child signed with Man City’s academy
£10,000 to families of Under 8 players who moved into the Man City area.
3. Deliberate Obstruction
obstruct (verb), obstruction (noun) = block something to stop it’s progress (a car, an investigation)
When the Premier League began the investigation into their finances, Manchester City often lied, filed fake documents and provided false witness evidence to stop the investigation.
Now the league is deciding the punishment for Man City.
Possible punishments include:
a point deduction this year
a point deduction for the next 3 years
kicked out of the Premier league immediately
removing Man City’s league titles
a transfer ban (for 1-2 years)
a hefty fine
compensation to other clubs for their lost prize money if they finished behind Man City.
hefty = big size or weight
fine = pay money as a punishment
to be kicked out = forced to leave, removed from a place
compensation = money you pay because you made a mistake (e.g. broke a contract, damaged someone’s car)
What punishment do you think they should get?
No one is speaking directly to the media but reporters think many clubs hope that Man City:
will be given a 2-3 year transfer ban
Be given a huge point deduction this year
be given a point deduction over the next 2-3 years so they can’t return to the league quickly
will have their recent 8 titles removed with no new winner chosen
My personal opinion would be for city to lose 10 points from all their last 15 seasons. If they still finished first, they can keep the title. If other teams have more points at the end, they should get the title.
There are 2 more issues we must consider…
Abu Dhabi is a key trading partner and investor in the UK.
In 2008 Abu Dhabi loaned Barclay’s Bank, one of the UK’s biggest banks, $6 billion
Since then it has invested $40 billion in the British economy
In recent years they have bought $1.3 billion of British military equipment
Reports say Abu Dhabi is threatening to
Since then, the UAE has invested around $40 billion in Britain, has become the latter’s biggest trade partner in the Middle East, and has been the third-largest recipient of UK arms export licenses globally since 2024, while British military deals there have been worth almost $1.3 billion in recent years.