Premier League Prize Money & TV Rights Distribution 2024/25: How Much 1st to 20th Place Earned
Short answer: Champions Liverpool received £174.9 million in central Premier League payments for 2024/25, and bottom side Southampton £109.2 million. Every club got the same £96.9 million equal share, and the league paid £2.83 billion to its 20 clubs in total. The gap between top and bottom earner was 1.6:1.
2024/25 Key Takeaways
- The £174.9 Million Champions Payout: Champions Liverpool received £174.9 million in central payments for 2024/25, made up of equal shares, UK and international merit payments, and live UK broadcast facility fees.
- The £96.9 Million Equal Share: Every one of the 20 clubs received the same £96.9 million: a £29.8 million UK equal share, a £59.2 million international equal share and £7.9 million of central commercial money.
- The £109M Relegation Cushion: Southampton, who finished 20th, still received £109.2 million from the Premier League for the 2024/25 season.
- A 1.6:1 Ratio: The gap between the top earner (£174.9M) and the lowest earner (£109.2M) was just 1.6:1, which the Premier League describes as the most equitable distribution among Europe’s major leagues.
Every May, as the final whistle blows across ten English football grounds on the final day of the season, supporters experience the raw emotions of sporting glory and heartbreak. We celebrate title parades, mourn relegation tears, and track European qualification. But away from the pitch, the final league table also decides how the league’s central money is shared out.
The English Premier League is the richest league in world football. Its domestic broadcast contracts with Sky Sports and TNT Sports, combined with its international television rights and central sponsorship deals, allowed it to pay £2.83 billion to its 20 clubs for the 2024/25 season. Every club receives the same equal share, and the rest depends on league position and live television appearances.
As revealed in our detailed breakdown of all 20 Premier League wage bills and cost per point, understanding how central distributions flow is vital to analyzing club sustainability under Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). To show fans exactly where the money lands, we used the Premier League’s official payments release for 2024/25, the latest season with official figures (the league had not published its 2025/26 figures by late October 2026). Here is the 20-place breakdown of Premier League Prize Money and TV Rights Distribution.
Full 20-Place Premier League Prize Money Table (2024/25 Official Payments)
The table below lists the central payments the Premier League made for every finishing position in 2024/25. The equal share combines the UK and international equal shares and central commercial money; merit payments combine UK and international merit money. Facility fees depend on how many of a club’s matches were shown live in the UK, not on league position, which is why 15th-placed Manchester United received more than four clubs above them.
| Pos | Club (2024/25) & Live UK Games | Equal Base Share | Merit Payments | Facility Fees (Live TV) | Total Payout (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Liverpool — Champions · 30 live | £96,900,000 | £53,100,000 | £24,900,000 | £174,900,000 |
| 2nd | Arsenal — Runners-up · 29 live | £96,900,000 | £50,400,000 | £24,200,000 | £171,500,000 |
| 3rd | Manchester City — 3rd · 25 live | £96,900,000 | £47,700,000 | £20,900,000 | £165,500,000 |
| 4th | Chelsea — 4th · 26 live | £96,900,000 | £45,000,000 | £21,800,000 | £163,700,000 |
| 5th | Newcastle United — 5th · 25 live | £96,900,000 | £42,400,000 | £20,900,000 | £160,200,000 |
| 6th | Aston Villa — 6th · 27 live | £96,900,000 | £39,800,000 | £22,600,000 | £159,300,000 |
| 7th | Nottingham Forest — 7th · 22 live | £96,900,000 | £37,100,000 | £18,500,000 | £152,500,000 |
| 8th | Brighton & Hove Albion — 8th · 16 live | £96,900,000 | £34,500,000 | £13,700,000 | £145,100,000 |
| 9th | AFC Bournemouth — 9th · 17 live | £96,900,000 | £31,900,000 | £14,600,000 | £143,400,000 |
| 10th | Brentford — 10th · 15 live | £96,900,000 | £29,100,000 | £12,900,000 | £138,900,000 |
| 11th | Fulham — 11th · 14 live | £96,900,000 | £26,500,000 | £12,100,000 | £135,500,000 |
| 12th | Crystal Palace — 12th · 18 live | £96,900,000 | £23,800,000 | £15,400,000 | £136,100,000 |
| 13th | Everton — 13th · 16 live | £96,900,000 | £21,200,000 | £13,700,000 | £131,800,000 |
| 14th | West Ham United — 14th · 18 live | £96,900,000 | £18,600,000 | £15,400,000 | £130,900,000 |
| 15th | Manchester United — 15th · 28 live | £96,900,000 | £15,900,000 | £23,400,000 | £136,200,000 |
| 16th | Wolverhampton Wanderers — 16th · 15 live | £96,900,000 | £13,300,000 | £12,900,000 | £123,100,000 |
| 17th | Tottenham Hotspur — Final safety spot · 24 live | £96,900,000 | £10,700,000 | £20,200,000 | £127,800,000 |
| 18th | Leicester City — Relegated · 14 live | £96,900,000 | £7,900,000 | £12,100,000 | £116,900,000 |
| 19th | Ipswich Town — Relegated · 10 live | £96,900,000 | £5,300,000 | £8,900,000 | £111,100,000 |
| 20th | Southampton — Relegated (bottom) · 11 live | £96,900,000 | £2,600,000 | £9,700,000 | £109,200,000 |
Premier League payments to clubs by final position, 2024/25. Source: Premier League, 2024/25 central payments (equal share, merit and facility fees).
How does the Premier League’s £2.83 billion distribution formula work?
Unlike leagues where historical viewership and club fanbase size play a bigger part, the Premier League shares its central money through five streams. These were the 2024/25 amounts:
1. The Equal Base Shares (UK Equal Share + International Equal Share + Commercial)
Every single club receives identical baseline payments across three streams:
- UK Equal Share: £29.8 million per club (£596.0 million in total), the part of the UK broadcast money that is split equally twenty ways.
- International Equal Share: £59.2 million per club (£1,184.0 million in total), the largest single stream and a sign of the global appetite for Premier League football.
- Central Commercial Revenues: £7.9 million per club (£158.0 million in total), from the league’s central sponsorship and licensing deals.
- COMBINED BASELINE FLOOR: £96.9 million per club, paid regardless of whether you win the title or finish twentieth.
2. Merit Payments: The £2.7 Million Ladder
Merit money comes from UK and international broadcast money (£556.8 million in total), paid in equal steps by final league position. In 2024/25 the champions received £53.1 million in merit payments and the bottom club £2.6 million:
Every single position in the table was worth roughly £2.6 million to £2.7 million in merit payments. A 90th-minute winner on the final day that moves a club from 14th to 11th was worth about £7.9 million in extra merit money.
3. Facility Fees: The Price of Live UK Television
The rest of the UK broadcast money (£338.8 million in 2024/25) is paid as facility fees, based on how many times each club’s fixtures are selected for live UK broadcast on Sky Sports or TNT Sports:
- The 10-Match Floor: Every club is paid for at least 10 live broadcasts. Ipswich Town, shown live 10 times, received £8.9 million in 2024/25.
- Live Appearance Premium: Each additional live match was worth roughly £0.8 million in 2024/25 (our calculation from the official table). The most-televised clubs (Liverpool with 30 live games, Arsenal 29, Manchester United 28 and Manchester City 25) received up to £24.9 million in facility fees alone.
What happens financially after relegation, and what are parachute payments?
While bottom-placed Southampton received £109.2 million from their final Premier League campaign, falling into the EFL Championship means a sharp drop in central income:
- The Drop in Broadcasting: Championship clubs lose the Premier League’s equal share, merit and facility payments and receive far smaller EFL broadcast payments instead.
- The Parachute Payment Lifeline: To soften the fall while relegated clubs cut their wage bills, the Premier League pays parachute payments based on the broadcast equal share (£29.8M + £59.2M = £89.0M in 2024/25):
- Year 1: 55% of the equal share (~£49 million on 2024/25 figures)
- Year 2: 45% of the equal share (~£40 million)
- Year 3 (only for clubs that spent more than one season in the PL): 20% of the equal share (~£18 million)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How much prize money does the Premier League champion get?
In 2024/25, the latest season with official figures, champions Liverpool received £174.9 million in central payments: £96.9M in equal shares, £53.1M in merit payments and £24.9M in live television facility fees (30 live UK games).
How much does the bottom club in the Premier League earn?
Southampton, who finished 20th in 2024/25, received £109.2 million: the £96.9 million equal share, £2.6 million in merit payments and £9.7 million in facility fees.
How much is each Premier League place worth on the final day?
In 2024/25, each finishing position was worth roughly £2.6 million to £2.7 million in merit payments. Moving up three positions on the final matchday added about £7.9 million.
What is a Premier League facility fee?
Facility fees are broadcast fees paid to clubs each time their matches are selected for live television broadcast in the UK on Sky Sports or TNT Sports. Every club is paid for at least 10 live games (£8.9M in 2024/25), and each additional live broadcast was worth roughly £0.8M.
Why is the Premier League’s revenue model considered the fairest in sports?
In 2024/25 the ratio between the top-earning club (£174.9M) and the bottom-earning club (£109.2M) was just 1.6:1, because the £96.9 million equal share makes up most of every club’s payment. The Premier League describes its distribution as the most equitable of Europe’s major leagues.
Sources & Method
All club payments, equal shares, merit payments, facility fees and live-game counts are the Premier League’s official figures for the 2024/25 season, published on 1 July 2025. These are the latest official figures: the league had not published its 2025/26 payments by late October 2026. The per-place merit step, the value of an extra live game and the parachute amounts are FootGoal calculations from that table. The parachute percentages (55%, 45% and 20% of the broadcast equal share) come from the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Sports Business.
- Premier League: Central payments to clubs 2024/25 (1 July 2025) — official club-by-club table of equal shares, merit payments, facility fees, live games and totals (£2,833.6M in total).
- University of Liverpool Centre for Sports Business: The use and abuse of parachute payments (September 2025, PDF) — parachute payment rules (55% / 45% / 20% of the equal share).
