AN annual review into football finance has revealed how the North-East’s three biggest clubs recorded combined revenues of £334m in 2016-17.

The Sports Business Group at Deloitte has carried out its 27th review and show that £248m of that overall figure came from the region’s two Premier League clubs that season, Middlesbrough and Sunderland.

Both clubs are now preparing for a second outside the top tier, highlighting just how much of an impact on a club’s finances it has when it is not operating at the highest level. The huge sums rank them 15th and 18th respectively in the Premier League income table.

Middlesbrough – Championship runners-up in 2015-16 – saw revenues increase by 458 per cent (from £21.8m to £121.5m) during their season in the top tier.

Despite their relegation, Middlesbrough reported the Premier League’s 11th highest operating profit (£35m), while only Burnley and Hull City had lower wage costs than Middlesbrough’s £64.9m.

Sunderland – also relegated in 2016/17 – ranked seventh in the Premier League for average attendance (41,173) and 13th for wage costs (£84.4m). The club had revenues of £126.4m.

Newcastle United won the Championship that year and recorded the Championship’s highest wage bill (£112m) on revenues of £86m, giving a wages/revenue ratio of 131 per cent. The club’s average attendance of 51,114 was surpassed by only five clubs in the top two tiers of English football.

Overall the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs recorded combined revenues in excess of £5.5bn for the 2016/17 season. With a new broadcast cycle commencing in 2016/17 for Premier League clubs, the 20 clubs generated record revenues of £4.5bn, 25 per cent higher than in the previous season.

The benefit was felt further down the football pyramid, with record revenues for the 72 Football League clubs of almost £1bn.

Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “The financial results of the class of 2016/17 are the most impressive we have ever seen.

“Just a decade ago, 60 per cent of Premier League clubs were making an operating loss whereas in the 2016/17 season, all clubs were profitable. In addition, and for the first time ever, Premier League clubs’ revenues have grown at a faster rate than wages over a ten-year period.”

In the Championship, where Middlesbrough will spend another season, revenues grew 30 per cent to a record £720m in 2016/17. However, the trend for almost all of any revenue growth to be spent on wages has continued, with the Championship’s wages/revenue ratio of 99 per cent, albeit down from 100 per cent last year.

There is a greater revenue disparity than ever between clubs that are receiving parachute payments and those that do not.

Those clubs relegated from the Premier League in 2015/16 – Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Norwich - received £41m each, which in itself was more than the total revenue of all bar one of their competitor clubs in the Championship.

League One is where Sunderland finds itself next season and clubs at that level have seen increased revenue by 7 per cent to £146m, while League Two clubs’ revenue increased by 6 per cent to £91m.