As wages and transfer fees have risen over the past decade so, too, has the need for clubs to find ways to keep paying more
and more.
In the Premier League, between the financial reporting periods of 2012/13 and 2021/22, the most recently available
financial information made public by member clubs, wages had risen from a combined total of £1.7bn to £3.6bn by 2022,
according to figures presented by football finance expert Swiss Ramble.
That rise has been absorbed through the greater earning power of English football’s top tier, which is able to continue to
provide lucrative sums to its clubs thanks to the broadcasting deals that it has in place for both domestic and international
markets that reached more than £10bn for the current three-year, 2022-2025 cycle. The expectation is that it will continue
to rise when the next cycle kicks in at the start of the 2025/26 season.
For clubs, the benefit of those bumper deals has been reflected in improved revenues, with the Premier League’s total
revenues jumping from £2.5bn combined to £5.5bn by 2022, an increase of 120 per cent. Of that figure, commercial revenue
has played a significant role, rising from £754m in 2013 to £1.74bn in 2022, up almost 131 per cent.
But those increases have been met by a 103 per cent jump in wages, from £1.77bn to £3.6bn combined, with the wages to
turnover ratio standing at 66 per cent in 2022, down four per cent from a decade earlier.
Commercial revenues are something that the biggest clubs have been able to drive forward with great success at a time when
the Premier League, the most popular and lucrative domestic league in the world, has been able to capture the eyes, ears and
engagement of not only the domestic audience but the global one, with new territories growing their interest in the game and
the league, which has led to bountiful opportunities.
There have been few who have been as successful as Liverpool in terms of leveraging success on the pitch, global appeal of
the club and the Premier League’s positioning on the world football stage.
In 2012/13, the Reds, who finished that season seventh in the league, out of both the FA Cup and League Cup at the fourth
round stage and the Europa League at the round of 32, beaten by Zenit Saint Petersburg, were achieving £98m per year in
commercial revenues. At the time the Reds had the same main shirt sponsor as they do now, Standard Chartered, while the
kit manufacturer was Warrior Sports.
The value of both of those deals, with Standard Chartered’s now at around £50m per year and the current deal with Nike,
while at a guaranteed £30m is understood to be pushing the £70m mark annually through the 20 per cent of the sales of
LFC/Nike merchandise that the club receive, has been transformational in terms of the club’s commercial revenues.
But success on the pitch has been a major driver of commercial revenue, as has the way that Liverpool have positioned
themselves and looked at how they engage with partners. The club’s tradition and story is something that is rather unique,
and one that not many are able to lean on when it comes to bringing on board new partnerships.
Companies in the modern day, especially the kind of blue chip international brands that the Reds seek to align themselves
with, the latest being global fitness platform Peloton, want more than just their name associated with the club in exchange
for a large cheque; they want meaningful activation that allows them to reach fans and audiences in new and varied ways.
That approach has seen Liverpool’s commercial success soar. By the end of the 2021/22 financial year, the Reds were
achieving £247m in commercial revenue, the third highest in the Premier League behind Manchester United (£258m) and
Manchester City (£309m). But to look at the previous decade and the growth achieved, Liverpool stood second in the
Premier League, seeing a rise of £149m (152 per cent).
The only team to better the Reds during that period was Man City, owned by the Abu Dhabi-based City Football Group, who
achieved commercial revenue growth of £166m. City have had success in leaning on the simpatico relationships that exist in
the Middle East, with Sheikh Mansour, the club’s principal owner, serving as vice-president of the United Arab Emirates.
City, who were hit by more than 100 charges by the Premier League over alleged breaches of the league’s profit and
sustainability rules over the past decade, have been enormously successful in delivering greater revenues, through
commercial, broadcasting, prize money and player trading, to support the heavy investment into the first-team product that
has aided their rise to be English football’s most dominant team in recent years.
The challenge for Liverpool and their owners FSG over the coming years is to continue commercial growth and offer
companies and continually compelling product to invest their money in. The Premier League is entering into another very
important phase with new markets that have proved hard to crack, most notably the United States, whose TV deal with the
league is now worth some £2bn over the next three years, showing a greater interest and level of engagement with the
world’s most popular domestic league.
There are challenges that exist over the next decade, including the plans for the Saudi Pro League to become a global
challenger to the established elite and the US’ own plans to grow and develop the MLS, their elite domestic league. Key to
Liverpool meeting these challenges will be how well they manage their existing partnerships, something which they have
proven experts at. But there is also the need for the Reds to continue to be a competitive force on the pitch both at home and
abroad so that they can continue to be a team that appeals to fans from across the world. That, in turn, will see commercial
partners continue to invest greater sums that will go hand in hand with the growth in both wages and transfer fees that will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future.
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