Manchester duo, Liverpool and rest of 'Big Six' accused of 'destroying' Premier League

Manchester City won the Premier League title in the 2018-19 season [Courtesy]

The Premier League's so-called 'Big Six' clubs are 'destroying the top-flight' due to their financial dominance, a new study has claimed.

The six biggest teams in the English top-flight - namely Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham - reportedly make up almost three-fifths of all Premier League revenues between them.

Data from financial analysts Vysyble has revealed that the much-followed big six share around £2.77billion of income, leaving only £2.05billion for the remaining 14 clubs.

In another damning revelation, that £2.77bn is an increase of £247m from the previous year while the remaining clubs have seen their overall revenues decrease by £10m.

It is stressed that this revenue difference is partly due to the Big Six's participation in European competition, but such a financial divide could prove a problem for the long-term future of so-called lesser top-flight clubs.

Roger Bell, one of the report’s authors and a director of Vysyble, said: "Last year we highlighted the Big Six clubs’ desire to reduce risk which they are now successfully doing with increasing amounts of European prize money and what will be a greater share of the Premier League’s international broadcast rights revenue.

"The downside is that the remaining group of 14 clubs, irrespective of the constituents, will fall further behind the Big Six in terms of revenue, profitability and on-the-pitch performance.

Liverpool are also among the so-called 'Big Six' clubs [Courtesy]

"With ten years of available data, we can see a clear correlation between improving economic profit performance by the Big Six clubs and their increasing share of total Premier League points. The Big 6 clubs are destroying the Premier League with money."

The report - which also notes that "in 2008-09, the gap between the 6th and 7th highest revenue earning clubs was just £1.88m" - also highlighted the difference in points between the big clubs and relegation-threatened sides.

"Since Leicester City’s title win, the Big Six clubs have collectively improved their end of season points tally by 91 points from 393 in 2015-16 to a total of 474 points at the end of the 2018-19 season," Bell added.

"The Big Six group is comfortably in the driving seat as higher profits are pointing towards greater points totals. The points gap between the title winner and the bottom club is a Premier League record 82 points for the 2018-19 season with two of the three longest unbeaten runs from the start of the season taking place in the last two seasons.

"With on-pitch team possession statistics from some of the Big 6 clubs increasingly reaching 70% and more, is this the game that fans really want?"

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