Premier League clubs split over revenue-sharing model

Clubs in football’s English Premier League are said to be in disagreement over a proposed new model for the way revenue from the sale of overseas media rights is shared out between teams.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore is said to have presented a plan whereby 35 per cent of overseas revenue would be allocated according to where a club finished in the table.

According to the Daily Mail newspaper, the 35 per cent share in question is worth approximately £1bn (€1.13bn/$1.34bn) over a three-season rights window.

Current policy states that all money from sales to foreign broadcasters is shared equally between all 20 clubs.

The league’s ‘Big Six’ – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – are said to have agreed to the proposed new rules and the Daily Mail has reported that Everton, Leicester City and West Ham United have this week also declared their support for the plans.

However, with a final vote due to take place on October 4, those in favour are still five teams short of the 14 required to amend the rules, with The Guardian newspaper suggesting that the remaining 11 clubs are strongly opposed to the new plans.

Chelsea secured a payment of more than £150.8m for winning the Premier League in 2016-17 as the first season of the competition’s new rights cycle took hold. The revenue distributed to clubs includes income generated from the sale of central broadcasting rights, both UK and international, and other central commercial rights.

The Premier League’s current system for distributing revenue sees 50 per cent of UK broadcast revenue split equally between the 20 clubs, which amounted to £35,301,989 per team in 2016-17. Twenty-five per cent of UK broadcast revenue is paid in merit payments based on a team’s finishing position in the table.

Twenty-five per cent of UK broadcast revenue is paid in facility fees each time a club’s matches are broadcast in the UK. All international broadcast revenue, and central commercial revenue, is split equally among the 20 clubs. The former figure amounted to £39,090,596 per club for 2016-17 and the latter £4,759,404.