The 92 professional English clubs generated income of £951 million during the 1998-99 season - up 10 per cent from £863 million the year before. Football will by now have already become a £1 billion-a-year business.

The gulf between rich and poor is still growing ever wider. The total operating profit - before transfer fees and financing costs - of the 20 Premier League clubs in 1998-99 was £69 million, exactly the same as the total operating loss of the 72 Football League clubs.

Due to an increase of £55 million in transfer spending by Premiership clubs, they nevertheless reported a reduced pretax profit of £13.6 million. This was still far better than in the Football League, where losses grew further - by 45% - to £75 million.

The highest pre-tax profit-makers were Manchester United (£22.4 million), Aston Villa (£20.2 million including the sale of Dwight Yorke), Forest (£8 million) and Derby (£6.67 million).

Premiership players continue to earn more and more. Their total estimated wages for 1998-99 were £241 million - an average of just over £12 million a club - which was an increase of 266% over five years. The total is expected to have risen by at least 30 per cent since the end of the season before last.