The English Premier League's already well-heeled football stars were the biggest winners as growing competition for television rights helped to lift revenue at its clubs to a record 3.2 billion pounds last season.
The Business Services group Deloittes estimates that income for the 20 Premier League clubs rose almost 30 percent in 2013-14 after the telecoms company BT bought a share of the TV rights to step up its challenge to the long-dominant broadcaster BSkyB.
The appeal of the English game to TV viewers in its domestic market and around the world makes the sale of broadcasting rights a far more lucrative proposition for the Premier League than for its counterparts in Germany, Spain, Italy and France.
But the extravagant spending of British clubs makes them far less profitable than their rivals in Germany, where club ownership and finances are more tightly regulated, and player wages are not as high.