English soccer broke the £1bn revenue barrier to cement its position as the richest league in the world last year.
Losses, however, mounted as wages soared and the gap between rich and poor clubs widened, a study released yesterday showed.
While television income helped fuel a 13% rise in revenues to £1,078m in the 1999/2000 season, the combined pre-tax loss from England's 92 professional clubs more than doubled to £145m, consultants Deloitte & Touche said in their annual review of football finance.
'Whilst English professional football has generated massive income increases in the last decade, this has been more than matched by the clubs' ability to spend it,' Gerry Boon, head of Deloitte & Touche Sport, said in the report.
Total wage bills for playing and administrative staff were £747m, representing 69% of total turnover.
English clubs now face the challenge of trying to ensure that funds from yet more lucrative TV deals do not all end up in the pockets of the players.
16 clubs had wage bills that exceeded their income. Premier league champions Manchester United, rivals Leeds United and first division Watford were the only clubs to spend under 50% of their turnover on wages.
Television income is set to increase further as a £1.1bn rights deal agreed last year with BSkyB, as well as other smaller deals, come into effect when the premier league season kicks off this weekend.
The gap between the elite 20-club premier league and the also-rans who make up the lower reaches of the English professional game is growing ever larger.
The premier league generated £772m last year, while the other 72 clubs from divisions one to three made revenues of just £306m between them.
