European football league is ‘inevitable’ as Prem giants Manchester United, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham eye breakaway

A BREAKAWAY European football league with a salary cap for players is inevitable for leading Premier League clubs to prevent them facing “catastrophic” financial implications, according to a new report into the sport’s finances.

Rocketing wages currently outstrip the amount of money being earned through TV and sponsorship money by the seven biggest English clubs – Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Everton – who have between them lost an eye-watering £1.1BILLION over the past seven years.

With the most recent UK television deal costing BT and Sky £5.1billion, both TV companies have warned the Premier League they may not pay as much as the organisation might be anticipating next time around.

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Yet even if TV deal were to increase, leading analysts Vysyble believe it would not be enough to keep up with increasing wages, and the top clubs will have no choice but to push for a continent-wide Super League.

This “closed shop”, Vysyble say, would allow clubs involved in the breakaway league to implement a salary cap.

Vysyble’s Roger Bell, who will discuss the issue on talkSPORT Extra Time with Tom Latchem from 1am on Friday night, said: “The money from TV is critical to the clubs in terms of funding player purchases and contracts, but wage costs are rising faster than revenues.

“Despite rising revenues from TV and sponsorship, the top seven EPL clubs still struggle to make real money.

“Using a measure known as Economic Profit – which has been used by Coca-Cola, Gillette, Lloyds Bank, etcetera, where all taxes and charges are subtracted from the revenue number to give a true reflection of money made or lost – the top seven EPL clubs have destroyed £1.1billion over the last seven years despite rising revenues via TV rights deals.

“Our analysis shows that in the current framework there is only a one in five chance that any of the top seven clubs will actually make money.

“However, the EPL is driven by maximising brand value and thus TV revenues. We have shown that the clubs need increasing revenues just to function.

“If BT and Sky can’t or won’t meet the EPL’s revenue expectations, then the top six or seven clubs – and the rest of the EPL – must look for cash elsewhere to pay current player contracts, otherwise the clubs face a potentially catastrophic cash squeeze.

“The EPL was formed to gain increased monies from broadcasting back in 1992. There is nothing to stop the top six or seven clubs breaking away and joining forces with other top clubs from Italy, Spain, Germany, etcetera, forming a European Super League and negotiating a Europe-wide or even global TV deal for many, many billions of pounds.”

Vysyble believes that a closed European Super League with no promotion or relegation – like with sports in the United States – would allow the owners of those clubs in it to implement salary caps on the back of lucrative TV and sponsorship deals, and make huge sums of money.

Bell said: “The influence of US club owners like Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool, should not be underestimated.

“Amazon, the US retailer, has just launched a global web streaming service. It has also bought some of the rights to the German Bundesliga output.

“The Americans understand media and sport very well. Both Man United and Arsenal owners also own NFL teams whilst Fenway Group at Liverpool own the Boston Red Sox baseball team, so dealing with closely managed game formats designed for TV is nothing new to them.

“A European Super League would command huge revenues from global broadcasting deals, potentially with an Amazon, 21st Century Fox, Netflix etcetera.

“Who wouldn’t want to watch Man United versus Barcelona or Chelsea versus Real Madrid every eight weeks, every season?”

He added: “A closed league allows for salary caps, as there would be no more wealthy a league to play in anywhere on earth – including China, for instance – a draft system for upcoming players and the ability for club owners to control costs and make serious money.”

However, Vysyble warned about the impact on those clubs which would be left behind.

Bell said: “National leagues will be hardest hit as TV revenues will wither away. This means that wages, crowds, and investment will drop significantly.”

*Listen to Vysyble’ Roger Bell and John Purcell discuss this further on talkSPORT Extra Time with Tom Latchem from 1am on Friday night. You can put your questions to them by calling 08717223344 or tweeting @tsextratime or @theboylatch.