Premier League broadcast cash table: Liverpool pip title winners Manchester City to top prize
Liverpool banked the biggest share of the Premier League’s merit-linked broadcast cash pool this season despite finishing behind Manchester City in the final table.
The Reds received £97.5m, the largest sum any club has ever been paid via the top flight’s central distributions and just under £1m more than recently crowned champions City.
Similarly, Tottenham and Manchester United, who finished sixth and seventh, pocketed £89.5m and £89m respectively – more than fifth-placed Everton, who got £85m.
The discrepancies between league position and share of the pot are down to the number of times each team has been shown on British television. While payments are partly affected by final position they are also determined by live broadcasts, and no team had more than Liverpool’s 28.
Bumper new domestic and international contracts saw payments to all clubs rocket, with bottom side Cardiff’s £62m windfall greater than Manchester United received 12 months ago for topping the table.
The latest evidence of the Premier League’s rude financial health came yesterday as pressure increased on chief executive Richard Scudamore to resign.
The league’s audit and remuneration committee is to discuss his position at a meeting early next week, after email exchanges emerged in which Scudamore made sexist remarks.
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke called Scudamore’s comments “totally inappropriate” but said they would not begin disciplinary action as the emails were private.
Sports minister Helen Grant called the controversy “completely unacceptable”, while shadow minister Clive Efford has written to the FA and Premier League to demand action.
Independent FA board member and former Millwall director Heather Rabbatts has called an emergency meeting of the governing body’s Inclusion Advisory Board for Tuesday, a day after the Premier League’s summit. The FA have been accused of “cowardice” in refusing to act by one of the game’s leading anti-discrimination campaigners, Piara Powar.