The dust on the current premier league season has been settled (2021-22). Clubs are almost booked their final places with only three weeks more to go. That leaves the chairman of the 20 premier league clubs left to take stock and consider the financial implications. As ever, the biggest clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester City brought in head-spinning amounts.
This was in a way proved to be a unique season on and off the pitch. Every club in the country had their wallets hit by numbers of fans after the covid situation. That leaves matchday and ticketing income almost doubled since the could period.
But clubs at the top of the pile were able to take that hit, thanks to the stratospheric broadcasting and merit payments available in the top flight, with over £2.5 billion of central funds and prize money to be shared around.
However, the Premier League has not revealed the official prize money figures like always. But based on the premier league distribution policies and live matchday income, we concluded the Premier League Prize Money for each club.
But before estimating the Premier League Prize Money, let’s develop the ground base over the premier league TV rights prize money distribution.
Premier League TV Rights Money Distribution Among 20 Clubs
Content Summary
The total money from 3 year deal both domestic and overseas is divided into three parts, one part for each of the three seasons the deal is active.
So the total money from the current domestic (£5.136 billion) and oversees (£3.2 billion) three-year deal was around £8.36 billion, the total TV money is then spread equally into three seasons which is around £2.6 billion, and that makes the yearly prize money fund for the Premier League teams. The breakdown details for the new season are not out yet. However, we can get an idea of how it will be from the previous seasons.
Prize Money 2021-22 Fund
The yearly prize money fund comes in two portions. 1) Domestic TV Rights Money. 2) Oversees TV Rights Money.
| Numbers | A. DOMESTIC TV MONEY | OVERSEES TV MONEY |
| 1 | 50% is shared equally | 100% shared equally |
| 2 | 25% is merit money | |
| 3 | 25% is the facility fee |
1) Domestic TV Money – £1.8 billion
The domestic portion of the money will be divided among 20 clubs according to the following model.
- 50% divided equally. That’s around £38 million each for all 20 clubs
- 25% Merit-based divided according to final league position in 2021-22 season. That’s around £2 million for the 20th place team rising higher by £2m for every position all the way to £24 million for the champions.
- 25% is divided as a facility fee to all clubs depending on how many times the team’s match was shown live. That’s around £1 million for every live game or guaranteed £10m if a team only had 10 or fewer live matches.
2) Oversees TV Money (around £1 billion)
Oversees TV money is divided equally between all 20 clubs and for the 2021-22 season all premier league clubs will get around £47 million each from this portion.
Let us check how much the teams earned over the last few seasons:
Premier League Prize Money
So the total money from both domestic and overseas three tv deals combined is around £8 billion. Which will be divided into three parts making a prize money pool for each of the three seasons under the current TV deal.
That’s around £2.6 billion a season to be distributed among premier league clubs (part of it will be used as parachute payments to relegated clubs). So the prize money pool for the 2021-22 season will be around £2.5 billion and here is how the distribution model works in the premier league.
1. Manchester City
- League Position: 1st
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 25
- Estimated Prize Money: £161.7m
- Estimated Rebate: £7.8m
- Total: £153.9m
2. Liverpool
- League Position: 2nd
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 28
- Estimated Prize Money: £156.5m
- Estimated Rebate: £8.2m
- Total: £153.3m
3. Chelsea
- Actual League Position: 3rd
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 27
- Estimated Prize Money: £158.2m
- Estimated Rebate: £7.3m
- Total: £150.9m
4. Arsenal
- League Position: 4th
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 26
- Estimated Prize Money: £154.2m
- Estimated Rebate: £6.2m
- Total: £148.3m
5. Tottenham
- League Position: 5th
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 25
- Estimated Prize Money: £147.7m
- Estimated Rebate: £6.3m
- Total: £141.3m
6. Manchester United
- League Position: 6th
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 27
- Estimated Prize Money: £150.9million
- Estimated Rebate: £7.4million
- Total: £143.5m
7. West Ham
- League Position: 7th
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 24
- Estimated Prize Money: £142.4m
- Estimated Rebate: £3.9m
- Total: £139.4m
8). Wolves
- League Position: 8th
- No. Of Paid TV Games: 24
- Estimated Prize Money: £140.8m
- Estimated Rebate: £5.9m
- Total: £134.4m
Premier League Prize Money 2021-22 Breakdown:
| Rank | CLUBS | Equal Share | Facilities | Merit Share | Tv rights | Commercial revenue | Total Prize Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | £34m | £33m | £38m | £43m | £5m | £153.9m |
| 2 | Liverpool | £34m | £30m | £36m | £43m | £5m | £153.5m |
| 3 | Chelsea | £34m | £35m | £34m | £43m | £5m | £150.9m |
| 4 | Arsenal | £34m | £29m | £32m | £43m | £5m | £148.3m |
| 5 | Tottenham | £34m | £20m | £30m | £43m | £5m | £141.3m |
| 6 | Manchester United | £34m | £30m | £28m | £43m | £5m | £143.5m |
| 7 | West Ham United | £34m | £17m | £27m | £43m | £5m | £139.4m |
| 8 | Wolves | £34m | £28m | £24m | £43m | £5m | £134.4m |
| 9 | Brighton | £34m | £14m | £23m | £43m | £5m | £135m |
| 10 | Newcastle | £34m | £12m | £21m | £43m | £5m | £138.6m |
| 11 | Leicester | £34m | £14m | £19m | £43m | £5m | £122.2m |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | £34m | £21m | £17m | £43m | £5m | £119.9m |
| 13 | Aston Villa | £34m | £23m | £15m | £43m | £5m | £116.3m |
| 14 | Brentford | £34m | £15m | £13m | £43m | £5m | £111.7m |
| 15 | Southampton | £34m | £12m | £11m | £43m | £5m | £116.9m |
| 16 | Burnley | £34m | £20m | £10m | £43m | £5m | £107.5m |
| 17 | Leeds United | £34m | £15m | £8.5m | £43m | £5m | £101.7m |
| 18 | Everton | £34m | £14m | £6m | £43m | £5m | £106.9m |
| 19 | Watford | £34m | £15m | £4m | £43m | £5m | £101.7m |
| 20 | Norwich City | £34m | £12m | £2.5m | £43m | £5m | £91.5m |
Premier League football association divided the total money from a 3-year deal (both domestic and overseas) is divided into three parts. One part for each of the three seasons. The total money from the current domestic and overseas three-year deal is then spread equally into three seasons.
Each club is given an equal share of £34m from the domestic TV deal, with an extra facility fee depending on how many times they are broadcast. They also receive a £5m share of commercial revenue each and an equal share of £43m each from International TV rights.
Overseas TV rights were previously distributed as equal shares by the Premier League, but this was changed in the 2019-22 deal. Clubs will continue to share current levels of overseas revenue equally, but any increase will be distributed based on their position in the league.