Liverpool misses glory – but takes cash prize

Liverpool really did win the English Premier League – if it was measured by the revenues each football club makes from the league’s central pot, rather than results on the pitch.

Despite being pipped to top spot in the final week of the season by champions Manchester City, runners-up Liverpool – owned by John W Henry, whose Fenway Sports Group also includes the Boston Red Sox baseball team – made £97.5m from the distribution of league income. According to the league’s figures, that was £900,000 more than the revenues of the champions.

While this may not soothe the pain of missing out on the title, Liverpool’s income represented an increase on last year of £42.7m, as the league’s 20 clubs felt the benefit of the first year of new domestic and international TV rights deals worth £5.5bn.

Each club received an equal share of £52.1m from TV rights deals and commercial income. But Liverpool had the highest number of live matches in the UK, with 28 – three more than City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal – earning the club a further £21.9m.

Clubs are also awarded merit payments depending on their final league position. For winning the league, Manchester City received £24.7m, while Liverpool got £23.5m.

Such is the growth in TV income that the Premier League expects all its competing clubs to be among the richest clubs in Europe in the next few years. Liverpool’s £97.5m income is nearly £6m higher than the broadcast revenues made by Bayern Munich in 2012-13, the year the German giants won three titles, including the European Champions League and the domestic Bundesliga.

Lombard: Football weary

Liverpool, the plaything of US sports entrepreneur John W Henry, was the top earner at £97.5m in 2013/14. That compared with £55m in the 2012/13 season, writes Jonathan Guthrie.

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Two other UK clubs earned more than £90m this season: Arsenal and Chelsea. Manchester United, last year’s champions, finished in a miserable seventh place – poor by its exalted standards – but still earned £89.2m.

The uplift in TV rights income has meant that even bottom-placed Cardiff City – with £62.1m – earned more than the £60.8m United made last year. That meant the distribution ratio between Manchester City at the top and Cardiff in 20th place was 1.57 to 1.

In total, the Premier League distributed £1.56bn to the 20 clubs that competed this season.

Liverpool’s income boost should invigorate a set of accounts that reflect the colour of the club’s famous shirts. The club was in the red by £49.9m in 2012-13.