The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has recorded a turnover of £44.3m, marking the highest amount in the league’s history.
These latest figures indicate a turnover increase of £2.4m (6%), rising from last year’s record of £41.9m, as detailed in the league’s recently released annual accounts.
Neil Doncaster, SPFL Group Chief Executive, commented: “We’re really proud to announce record turnover and fee payments to our member clubs today as we continue to build on the strong income growth and commercial deals in recent years.
“Given the challenging market and economic conditions right now, these encouraging results reinforce the huge popularity of Scottish football, as well as the level of interest this generates with our broadcasters and our increasing roster of partners.”
The growth is largely attributed to the league’s new Sky Sports television contract, along with rising revenues from the SPFL’s other domestic and international broadcasting deals.
Additionally, the figures show that fee payments to clubs have risen by £2m to reach £33.7m – a 6% increase – while total group distributions to clubs have risen to £37.9m, up from £35.8m last year.
“In recent months, we’ve agreed a major new title sponsorship deal with William Hill, as well as a new TV contract with Premier Sports,” Doncaster added.
“The SPFL has just reported significantly higher attendances per capita than any other European league in a new UEFA report, and whilst we’ll never be complacent, these results give us a strong foundation upon which to further improve our performance.”
As noted by Doncaster, the SPFL revealed a partnership with William Hill earlier this year. This agreement designates the betting company, which is part of the LSE gaming group Evoke Plc, as the main sponsor for all four tiers of Scottish football – the Premiership, Championship, League One, and League Two.
Murdoch MacLennan, SPFL Chairman, remarked: “These latest annual results are testament to the hard work and talent of the SPFL’s member clubs and to the efforts of the dedicated team at the SPFL, which works tirelessly on their behalf.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to provide our members with the highest annual distributions in the history of Scottish league football and thank our members for their vigorous support.”
