SPFL Annual report year ending May 2024

The SPFL are responsible for bringing money into the game and distributing it as prize money to the clubs

The SPFL accounts have been released for the year end May 2024. It was a record year for turnover, an increase of 6% from £41.9m to £44.3million. This increase was primarily down to a £1m increase in TV revenue received from Sky Sports. After £3.5m admin expenses such as marketing, advertising and auditing, as well as the referee expenses and the increased cost in match production (6 cameras per non televised match instead of 4, to improve the VAR system) are accounted for there was just under £38m left in the pot to distribute across the 5 main streams.

The main one - prize money paid to the 42 SPFL member clubs - also increased by the same 6% to give a total SPFL pot of £33.7million. Although £33 million divided by 42 teams is a drop in the ocean compared to some other leagues - the bottom team in the English Premier League receives over £100m – it still is trending in the right direction as that’s a £4m increase in the last 2 seasons.

The English Premier League prize money from 2 seasons ago (2022/23). The right hand column shows the total payments - relegated Southampton received £103.6m. The SPFL had only £33.7m to divide between 42 clubs.

As per the SPFL articles of association, the payments to clubs are distributed on a fixed percentage based on finishing position in the 42 team SPFL pyramid. The finalised payments to the SPFL member clubs for season 2023/24 were therefore:

Premiership champions Celtic receive 13.40% of the entire prize money pie - £4.5m, while Dundee United, the winners of the Championship receive only 2.25% (£758k).