Soccer-Premier League clubs enjoy record revenues but suffers losses

MANCHESTER, England, April 20 (Reuters) - Premier League clubs' revenues reached a new high of 3.6 billion pounds ($4.6 billion) last season, business advisory firm Deloitte said in its annual analysis while noting the clubs' suffered record combined pre-tax losses of 110 million pounds. A number of one-off costs contributed to the loss, after two years of profits, while the report noted that wage costs increased by 12 percent to 2.3 billion pounds. Dan Jones, head of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said Manchester clubs United and City alone were responsible for more than 50 percent of the increase. "Manchester United’s participation in the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League, coupled with continued strong commercial revenue growth, resulted in a 30 percent increase in revenue to 515m pounds. This saw them top the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time since 2003-04, as the world’s highest revenue-generating club," Jones said. "Increased distributions to clubs competing in Europe, under the new UEFA broadcast rights cycle – notably Manchester City, who reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League – also contributed to Premier League clubs’ revenue growth," he added. Combined revenue for the previous season was 3.4 billion pounds, according to Deloitte's study. Jones said the losses should be seen as a blip and the new television deals coming online should see a swift return to profitability. "It is worth noting that this is due to a small number of one-off 'exceptional' costs, and we fully expect that the Premier League’s new three-year broadcast rights deal will see a return to record levels of profitability in the 2016/17 season," the analyst said. ($1 = 0.7825 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Evans, editing by Ed Osmond)