City to earn record £166m as new TV deal kicks in

MANCHESTER City are expected to pocket about £166million from Premier League central funds and in prize cash this season, a record high figure for any winner of England’s elite division, writes Nick Harris.

When Pep Guardiola’s club won their fourth Premier League title in five years last May, they picked up £153m, but that will increase this year as a batch of improved overseas TV contracts from 2022-23 kick in.

The Mail on Sunday forecast for this season’s bumper payouts expects the 20 clubs to share around £2.7billion from the league.

Each club’s reward is made up of six separate elements: equal shares of domestic and overseas TV cash; differing amounts of domestic and overseas cash based on merit, ie finishing position; ‘facility’ money that increases the more often a club has appeared in a televised live game in the UK; and a share of the league’s commercial income.

All foreign TV cash used to be split equally until the biggest clubs started agitating for a bigger share of that pot for themselves. They argued that the most-watched teams internationally were Manchester United and Liverpool, and to a lesser extent Chelsea and Arsenal and the other Big Six, so they should get more money.

A compromise was reached that from the 2019-20 season, any additional foreign cash in that rights cycle would be split on merit (position), not equally. The pandemic then meant a chaotic divvy-up ensued after rebates were needed to be made to some broadcasters.

The 2022-23 season, the first year of the new rights cycle, is arguably the first time the new allocation method is obvious, with Southampton in 20th place expected to get only around £1.5m of overseas merit money and City getting around £22m.