Premier League earnings 'relentless' rise continues as Arsenal lead London revenue ranking

London football clubs are playing a key role the way in the Premier League’s “relentless revenue growth” as the top division powered English football toward new records for earnings and spending.

Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance showed revenue across the 92 clubs in England’s top four divisions of £4.4billion, of which the Premier League 20 contributed £3.6bn.

Just under a third of the revenue generated by English clubs was created by the 16 Football League and Premier League clubs in the Greater London area, with four of the top eight earners hailing from the capital.

Arsenal’s £350m revenue, a six per cent increase on the 2014-15 season, was eclipsed only by Manchester City and Manchester United, though the Red Devils appeared to be pulling clear of their rivals by increasing their earnings by 30 per cent to £515.3m.

Though this was partly down to a return to the Champions League a string of improved commercial deals including a £75m-a-year kit partnership with Adidas saw United maximise their revenue.

Chelsea (£335m, fourth), Tottenham (£209m, sixth) and West Ham (£144m, seventh) were all ranked in a top eight that also included Liverpool.

That points to the increasing financial muscle of the capital and the North West, with 34 clubs from the two regions earning around two-thirds of the revenue for the 92 teams in the Premier League and Football League.

Adam Bull, a senior consultant in Deloitte's Sports Business Group, told Standard Sport: “In those two regions football is great for the local economy.

“The clubs that are based there are well set for growth. Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham all have or will have new stadiums and a track record of success.

“The fact that it’s a great global city surely helps in attracting the best talent to London. I’m sure a player being offered the chance not only to play in the Premier League but to live in the capital will only see it as a positive.”

London’s financial power is only set to increase in the coming years. Deloitte’s figures do not account for West Ham’s move to the 60,000 capacity London Stadium, which was intended to catapult the Hammers onto the top table of England’s financial powers.

Spurs hope to move into their new stadium at the start of the 2018-19 season whilst Chelsea have received approval from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan for a new £500m stadium on the site of Stamford Bridge.

Deloitte’s report also revealed that average earning for each top flight club were £182m, more than that of all 22 Division One clubs in 1991-92, the season before the Premier League began.

Seventeen of the league’s 20 teams recorded operating profits last season, with Manchester United leading the way with £173m. But with the new TV deal set to be accounted for in next year’s figures the report’s authors believe that every Premier League club could have ended the 2016-17 season with an operating profit.

That could lead to an even greater pool of interested parties when a top flight club comes on the market.

“Since the previous round of TV deals Premier League clubs are now making profits,” Bull said. “Whilst they were already really attractive to investors due to the excitement of the game, the global appeal and the quality of the managers and players there’s now a more rational business decision to investing in a top flight side.

“The number of potential interested suitors is increasing. Those people who will be used to acting rationally with their other business interests will now look at Premier League football and think they can apply the same methodology.

“They can make these clubs profit-making as well as sporting successes.”