Deloitte's Report on Clubs' Wages, Turnover and Finances

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The primary focus is on the Premiership for the 2006-2007 period, but still of interest and note QPR's "high" ranking re wages/turnover.
See Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finances - 2008
Forward to Deloitte Report ---- Deloitte Report Highlights ---- Deloitte Press Release "Record revenues fuel Premier League clubs’ on pitch success" ---- Transcript Annual Review

See also re Deloitte's 2007 Report covering 2005-2006 Season Finances/Wages/Turnover

Guardian - Deloitte Report
Click Here for Graphic

Wages/turnover ratios of Premier League and Championship clubs 2006-07
Tottenham 42
Man Utd 44
Arsenal 50
Sheffield Wednesday 51
Sheffield United 57
Liverpol 58
Watford 58
Reading 59
Bolton Wanderers 60
Norwich City 60
Prem Lge avg 63
Manchester City 64
Plymouth Argyle 65
Southampton 65
Ipswich Town 68
Chelsea 70
Newcastle United 72
Leicester City 73
Wolves 73
West Bromwich Albion 73
Everton 75
West Ham United 76
Hull City 77
Champ avg 79
Middlesbrough 80
Aston Villa 82
Birmingham City 85
Blackburn Rovers 85
Stoke City 88
Fulham 89
Portsmouth 90
Cardiff City 90
Sunderland 90
Queens Park Rangers 94
Charlton Athletic 95
Preston North End 97
Wigan Athletic 100
Coventry City 101
Burnley 102
Derby County 125


* Louise Taylor * The Guardian - Leading clubs losing out as players and agents cash in

The Premier League is generating more money than ever but double-digit wage inflation explains why several clubs have falling operating profits and pre-tax losses. This is the central theme of the 17th Deloitte annual review of football finance, published yesterday, which offers an intriguing insight into the game's finances during the 2006-07 season.

Although strong growth in commercial and matchday income saw collective Premier League revenues exceed £1.5bn for the first time, much of this increase has ended up in the pockets of players and agents. Sir Alan Sugar, the former Tottenham Hotspur chairman, memorably described this syndrome as "the prune juice effect" and Dan Jones, a partner in the sports business group at Deloitte, said: "The improvement in cost control which would demonstrate a normal business culture of maximising profitability does not appear to be happening at Premier League clubs. A shared will and action by all the clubs to limit wages growth would deliver increased profitability for all, but the pursuit of on-pitch success and the intense competitive desire to gain an edge means clubs continue to invest heavily in their playing squads and bid the market up, to the detriment of all clubs' finances and the benefit of players and their agents."

In 2006-07 Premier League clubs' salaries rose 13% - marginally ahead of a median 11% rise in revenue - to £969m and they will have broken the £1bn barrier in the season just finished. Clubs paid an average of £48.5m in wages, with Chelsea having the biggest bill at £133m and Watford the smallest at £17.7m. The picture was gloomier in the Championship, where aggregate operating losses worsened as average wage increases of 14% outstripped median revenue growth of 3%.

The 2006-07 figures almost certainly reflect clubs spending future broadcasting revenues but there are startling disparities between the important wages-to-turnover ratios at clubs in England's top two divisions. The average Premier League figure stood at 63% but Tottenham could be proud of their housekeeping because their wages/turnover ratio was the lowest at 42%. Manchester United's was a disciplined 44% and Liverpool's 58%.

Worrying figures of 80% and 85% were recorded at Middlesbrough and Blackburn respectively. Even more alarmingly, Sunderland's ratio was 90% and Derby's 125%. But the latter two probably reflect the payment of performance-related bonuses to players for winning promotion.

Significantly, only eight Premier League clubs showed operating profits, namely Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle, Reading, Sheffield United and Watford. England's top division was deposed as Europe's richest in terms of operating profits by Germany's Bundesliga, where the average wages/turnover ratio was 45% and collective profits of €250m (£197m) outstripped the Premier League's €141m.

Click here for graphics of all the key findings in the report Guardian


Also: Telegraph - Deloitte football finance review: Club-by-club Premier League analysis

Telegraph "Premier League wages break the £1 bn barrier"