Arsenal, United and Chelsea earn £20m more than rivals

ARSENAL, Chelsea and Manchester United each earned more than stg£53 million from television and prize money last season – at least stg£20m more than any of their rivals in the Barclaycard Premiership — and heralding the rise of a new breed of super-rich club.

Arsenal and Manchester United both earned over stg£56m while Chelsea brought in stg£53m compared to Liverpool and Newcastle whose income was around stg£32m.

Success in the Premiership and the number of times their matches were screened live are among the reasons for the differences in earnings, but the main cause is the fact that all three sides played in the Champions League.

The Gunners, Manchester United and Chelsea are in Europe's elite club competition again next season and the potential income will hammer home to United and Liverpool just how disastrous it is if they fail to get through the qualifying rounds as happened to Newcastle last season.

Henk Potts, a football finance expert with Barclays Stockbrokers, said: "These figures illustrate starkly that the gulf between the teams that play in the Champions League and those that don't is absolutely huge.

"We are seeing the appearance of super-rich clubs Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea at the moment with a couple of other clubs trying to get up to that level. Beneath that is a strata of mid-ranking clubs who appear forever doomed to remain at that status."

He said clubs like Liverpool are trying to get a couple of seasons in the Champions League in the hope that they will set themselves up in the Premiership and guarantee Champions League football again in future seasons.

"There are risks though securing Champions League football is what Leeds really gambled on doing but of course they lost."

Potts said Manchester United's total income would overtake Arsenal's due to match day takings and said the Gunners needed to move to their new stadium before they could match their rivals.

The difference in TV and prize money income between the champions Arsenal (stg£56.6m and bottom club Wolves (stg£16.6m ) is huge, but even the worst side in the Premiership earns vast sums compared to the leading First Division clubs.