Premier League prize money calculated as relegated clubs set to earn £100m

The most lucrative league in the world is back and all 20 clubs are guaranteed to earn huge windfalls before a ball is even kicked.

For the eventual Premier League champions a prize pot of more than £160m is on offer but even the relegated teams will bank north of £100m.

The league has not made prize money public since halfway through the previous decade but the breakdown is known and that means estimates can easily be calculated.

In 2022/23 the broadcast pot will grow again from about £2.5bn last season, meaning an increase on last season's figures.

But the money is not entirely down to where clubs finish in the table - as shown by Tottenham Hotspur making marginally more than Chelsea last season.

All 20 clubs receive an equal base payment from TV rights, which was worth about £84m last season, with clubs then banking additional amounts depending on how often they are selected for domestic TV.

Running parallel to that is the merit payment system. Last season each place in the table was worth about £2.2m to clubs, meaning even those in mid-table were not - despite the cliche - on the beach with weeks remaining in the campaign.

Only seven points separated Leicester City from Aston Villa last season but a gap of six places in the table meant a difference of £13.2m - in other words a majority of the fee paid for Philippe Coutinho.

And while on first glance the split in dividend between those near the top and bottom may not be transformative, these figures are before factoring in the carrot of reaching the Champions League.

Liverpool, for instance, banked almost £90m from their run to the final and clubs this season will be guaranteed £13m for merely reaching the group stage with far greater performance-based top ups, including £2.3m per win. In the Europa League those figures shrink to £3m and £527,000 but are still not sums to be sniffed at when they can accumulate.

By contrast winning the FA Cup is worth less than £5m in prize money with the EFL Cup closer to £1m.

Unsurprisingly the Premier League also bests the rest of Europe's big leagues - La Liga's champions stand to make about £135m, the winners in Germany get roughly £90m and in Serie A the biggest prize was worth similar last year.

2021/22 Prize money

1 Manchester City £161.3m, 2 Liverpool £159.8m, 3 Tottenham £152.1m, 4 Chelsea £151.7m, 5 Arsenal £151.6m, 6 Man United £150.2m, 7 West Ham £142.1m, 8 Leicester £134m, 9 Newcastle £131.5m,10 Brighton £130.6m, 11 Wolves £128.2m, 12 Crystal Palace £124.3m, 13 Aston Villa £123.3m,14 Brentford £121m, 15 Everton £120.4m, 16 Leeds £116.1m, 17 Southampton £113.3m, 18 Burnley £106.1m, 19 Watford £104.6m, 20 Norwich £100.3m.