German soccer clubs top profits league -report

By Elena Moya

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Top German soccer clubs have become the most profitable in Europe, overtaking England's Premier League despite the latter's growing lead in revenue, a report said on Thursday.

The Bundesliga became Europe's most profitable league in the 2006/07 season (the last data available), knocking the premiership from its top spot, according to the Annual Review of Football Finance published by accountancy firm Deloitte.

"The pursuit of on-pitch success and the intense competitive desire to gain an edge means (English) clubs continue to invest heavily in their playing squads ... to the detriment of all clubs' finances and the benefit of players and their agents," said Dan Jones, a partner at the Sports Group at Deloitte.

The German league, which includes teams such as Bayern Munich, earned 250 million euros ($393.1 million) in operating profit, or 18 percent of its revenue, in the 2006/07 season, compared with the Premier League's 141 million euros, giving a margin of 6 percent, the report said.

German profitability reflects clubs' ability to keep players' salaries under control and is despite the Bundesliga's combined revenue of 1.3 billion euros falling well short of the 2.2 billion euros generated by the Premiership, the report shows.

The Premier League generates about a quarter of the combined 13.6 billion euro revenue of Europe's top soccer leagues, but English clubs such as Chelsea -- which pays captain John Terry more than 125,000 pounds a week -- have spent much of their spiralling revenue in attracting and keeping players, the report says.

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