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DPA
Dusseldorf, May 29 (DPA) Germany’s Bundesliga is the most profitable football league in Europe, beating even the English Premier League, an independent report released Thursday showed. The 18 clubs in Germany’s top league earned a profit of 250 million euros (about $388 million), or 18 per cent of its revenue, in the 2006-07 season.

Although Premier League income soared above the 2-billion-euro mark for the first time to reach 2.3 billion euros, profit came to 141 million euros as the league’s growth in revenue has been offset by higher wage bills.

The Annual Review of Football Finance, published by accountancy firm Deloitte, said the Premier League generates about a quarter of the combined 13.6 billion euro revenue of Europe’s leagues, an increase of 1 billion euros over the previous year.

But English clubs have spent much of their spiralling revenue in attracting and keeping players, with wages growing by 13 per cent to more than 1.77 billion euros - more than twice that in Spain, Germany, France or Italy, the report says.

Success has come on the pitch in Europe, with an all English Champions League final this season, three clubs in the semi-finals for two seasons running and at least one finalist for the past four seasons.

“The pursuit of on-pitch success and the intense competitive desire to gain an edge means (English) clubs continue to invest heavily in their playing squads … to the detriment of all clubs’ finances and the benefit of players and their agents,” Dan Jones, a partner at the Sports Group at Deloitte, said.

The Bundesliga, meanwhile, has had less success on the European stage, with Bayer Leverkusen the last Champions League finalist in 2002.

However, German clubs have benefited from the ability to keep players’ salaries at a lower level. While salary levels as a percentage of turnover is between 62 per cent and 64 per cent of the leading leagues in England, Spain, Italy and France, the Bundesliga is around 45 per cent.

Stefan Ludwig, senior manager of Deloitte in Germany, said the financial gap to the Premier League would grow but the Bundesliga was well-equipped to compete for second place in view of booming spectator levels and increased television income.

“Against the general trend of increased income being invested in equal measure in transfers and wages, Bundesliga clubs are continuing their spending policies of the previous years,” he said.

“As a result, the Bundesliga will become more attractive for potential investors who in the past had shown little interest in the league.”
DPA