The 27th season of English Premier League will be kicking off on 11th August, 2019. Premier League was founded in February 1992.

It has come a long way in these 27 years, be it the quality of football , number of brands involved, and ultimately the money earned by the players & teams.

One of key ideas behind starting the Premier League was keeping in mind the money that can be made from selling the Television rights. Until 1992 the teams were all part of the ‘Football League’ which started 100 years back in 1888.

Only 6 teams have managed to win the Premier League in from its inception. Manchester United, Arsenal Chelsea, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers & Leicester City are the clubs who have managed to lift the coveted Trophy. But still we can see that all the 20 teams who get to feature in each season keep trying to finish on top or at least the best possible ranking. 3 of the teams gets relegated every year and are replaced by the top 3 teams from the first division. Teams don’t want to get relegated for two reasons. One of them is obviously to keep playing in one of the best football leagues in the world & the second reason is the amount of money involved in this league.

Team ownerships have changed hands. Players are getting signed up for huge wages. Brands are fighting to get a pie of this big brand Premier League.

Last season (2018-19) has been one of the best seasons so far for the Premier League clubs. The fight for the top spot was a nail biting finish between Liverpool FC & Manchester City. Champions League & Europa League saw the Premier League teams Liverpool FC, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea FC & Arsenal playing the finals. Champions League was won by Liverpool FC & Europa League trophy came to Stamford Bridge. This will go down in the history of Europe football as a special one. It saw the Complete dominance by the Premier League clubs.

Premier League has signed up some major brands as their official partners. Right from football supplier partner to official beer partner.

No Ball, No Game :

Nike partnered with Premier League in 2000-01 season to supply the footballs and the partnership is still going strong. One of the longest running sponsorship of Nike and now the deal has been extended till 2025.

Nike & Premier League’s sponsorship story

The list of official sponsors of Premier League includes EA Sports, Barclays, TAG Heuer, Coca Cola, Budweiser, Cadbury, Avery Dennison & Panini.

At the end of the day, it is all about the Money .. right Honey?

So what is there for the clubs playing in the Premier League ?

Money and lots of money.

Television rights, prize money, sponsorship, ticket sales, and a lot more activities around the clubs make sure that their money bag keeps getting bigger.

Every team who were part of the 2018-19 season were guaranteed £82.48 million, courtesy global television rights. This rule is going to change from this upcoming season & the earnings of the top 6 teams will get more lucrative.

The payment from the premier league is distributed under five different sections.

1. 50% of the UK broadcast revenues are equally shared by the teams, and all 20 teams got £34.36 mn each.

2. The money accrued from the International TV rights is also divided equally among the teams. A whopping £43.16 mn.

3. The Central Commercial revenue was at £4.96 mn.

In addition to this the teams also get:

4. Facility Fees : This is depending on the number of matches of each club which was aired live in the UK. Liverpool FC leads this list with 29 of their possible 38 matches on TV & took home £ 33.46 mn.

5. Finally the ‘Merit Payment’ : The money that each team gets depending on the final points table rankings. This amount ranges from £1.96 mn for the 20th placed team to £38.37 mn for the team ranked No.1.

The total payment to the clubs was ‘only’ £2456 million.

(£3456 would have been a nice number to remember & I am sure that it will happen sooner than later)

Overall Liverpool FC managed to get a slightly bigger chunk of the pay check than Manchester City.

The complete list:

Read More details about the payments

This is the payment that the clubs get from Premier League. In addition to this the clubs have other incomes as well.

Jersey sponsorships, Stadium branding, ticket sales, merchandise, club membership fees and a lot happening through the digital platforms adds up to the clubs’ revenue.

Premier League has a fan following across the world & Brands across the globe are competing to get their share of presence in this biggest sporting league.

Interesting fact is that the Brands which are sponsoring the jerseys of 50% clubs for the 2019-20 season are into Betting.

The Premier League fans watching matches with the help of digital platforms or streaming it on hand held devices have gone up. US broadcasters NBC had their ever highest digital audiences last season. This is just an indication of things to come in the near future.

English Premier League , better known as Premier League, is definitely a success story which has grown in stature in the last 27 years. It has been a great business model and there are leagues across the globe which have taken the cues from this. No wonder even the highest official award for British businesses came beckoning the Premier League. The Queen’s Award for Enterprise was presented to Premier League in recognition for its outstanding contribution to international trade.

It saw a total of 1072 goals last season and at the end just 1 point differentiated between the top two ranked teams. It was indeed a happening season for the Premier League.

Jogo Bonito, the beautiful game, has got fans across genders & age groups spanning the globe. The next weekend (11th Aug, 2019) will see the start of yet another season of the great Premier League.

The clubs will once again lock horns & compete against each other to win matches. Brands will keep pushing to get a better presence in all possible mediums.

The game which gets even the best friends to fight against each other and defend their favourite clubs will get going again.

In the midst of all these, the money machine will start clicking in the background.