[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] It has been confirmed that the revenue of the English Premier League (EPL), where Son Heung-min plays, is approaching 10 trillion Korean won.
Major foreign media reported on the 17th (local time), citing an accounting firm Deloitte report, that EPL's revenue for this season is expected to increase by 10% to 6 billion pounds (approximately 9.537 trillion won).
This is thanks to the EPL's global popularity, which has caused overseas TV broadcasting rights prices to soar. This season, PL's overseas broadcasting rights revenue is expected to surpass the UK broadcasting rights revenue for the first time in history.
The EPL boasts an overwhelming revenue scale even among the five major European football leagues.
Deloitte estimated that Spain's La Liga revenue for this season will be similar to last season at 3.7 billion euros (approximately 4.9658 trillion won). Germany's Bundesliga revenue is expected to increase by 16% to 3.6 billion euros, Italy's Serie A revenue slightly rose to 2.4 billion euros, and France's Ligue 1 revenue is expected to be similar to last season at 1.8 billion euros. Serie A and Ligue 1 revenues have not yet recovered to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Deloitte partner Tim Bridge said, "There is a growing sense that European professional football leagues are becoming more international." He added, "European leagues want to catch up with the PL, but in reality, the PL is far ahead compared to competing leagues."
However, one reason why EPL's revenue gap has widened to nearly twice that of La Liga or Bundesliga is that the PL was at a time to renew its broadcasting rights contracts.
The EPL office recently signed a new broadcasting rights contract with the US NBC network for 6 years worth 2.7 billion dollars (approximately 3.5651 trillion won). On the other hand, the Bundesliga still has 6 years left on a 6-year contract signed with ESPN 4 years ago, so a significant revenue increase is expected only after 2 years.
Although the EPL is generating enormous revenue thanks to its overseas popularity, it has been confirmed that clubs in the English professional football second division, the Championship, are facing serious financial problems. According to Deloitte, the player salary ratio to revenue for Championship clubs in the 2020-2021 season was 125%. This means that more money is spent on player salaries than revenue. The salary-to-revenue ratio increased by 11.5 percentage points compared to the previous season, indicating a growing burden of salary expenses. The Championship league's total net debt also increased by 32% to 1.8 billion pounds. Deloitte pointed out that the financial situation of the Championship league is very poor.
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