In 2024/25, 20th-placed Southampton were paid more than Atlético
In the 2024/25 distribution of broadcast and other central revenue, Southampton, 20th in the Premier League, received about €127.6m. Only Real Madrid and Barcelona got more in La Liga, where Atlético de Madrid received €108.17m. The main reason for the gap is how much each league has to hand out. The Premier League's payments from its international broadcast rights alone exceed La Liga's combined first- and second-division payments, even with the listed relegation compensation included. On top of that, the Premier League shares about 68% of its total equally among all its clubs, while in La Liga the equal part is 50% of the top flight's share. The breakdown of each league's pot, the extra money paid for league position and televised matches, and the adjustment from the deal with the investment fund CVC each get a section of their own below.
The Premier League published its 2024/25 payments on 1 July 2025, and La Liga followed on 22 December 2025. Southampton's published figure is £109.2m, and the euro amount uses the European Central Bank (ECB) reference rate for 30 June 2025, €1 = £0.8555. Atlético received about €19.5m less than Southampton, or roughly 15%. Figures for 2025/26 have appeared in the British press, but they are presented as estimates by The Athletic, not official Premier League payment figures, so they are not used here.
| Club | League | 2024/25 payment |
|---|---|---|
| Liverpool (1st) | Premier League | about €204.4m (£174.9m) |
| Real Madrid | La Liga | €157.92m |
| Barcelona | La Liga | €156.45m |
| Southampton (20th) | Premier League | about €127.6m (£109.2m) |
| Atlético de Madrid | La Liga | €108.17m |
| Athletic Club | La Liga | €72.26m |
| Leganés | La Liga | €39.93m |
The La Liga figures are after the LaLiga Impulso adjustments (the deal with CVC) and before the amounts each club has to contribute are taken off. Leganés received the least in La Liga. In the season before, 2023/24, the Premier League's bottom club, Sheffield United, also got more than Atlético.
The Premier League pays out more from international rights alone than La Liga distributes to its top two divisions
In 2024/25 the Premier League paid its 20 clubs a total of £2,833.6m, about €3,312m, or around 2.3 times La Liga's figure. Of that, £1,273.6m came from UK broadcast rights, £1,402m from international broadcast rights and £158m from central commercial revenue such as league sponsorship deals, so more came from abroad than from home. The international money on its own is about €1,639m. La Liga distributed €1,432.12m to its first and second divisions and €33.27m in compensation to relegated clubs, and the Premier League's international money is bigger than both added together.
The Premier League total includes central commercial revenue, which goes to all 20 clubs in equal amounts (£7.9m each), but take it out and the total is still more than twice La Liga's. Southampton's figure without it is about €118.4m, more than Atlético's.
The Premier League shares about 70% equally, and first gets 1.6 times what 20th gets
About 68% of the 2024/25 total was equal share, the same amount for every club. Per club, that meant £29.8m from UK broadcast rights, £59.2m from international rights and £7.9m from central commercial revenue, £96.9m in all. Of the rest, merit payments, which depend on finishing position, made up about 20%, and facility fees, paid for each match shown on television, about 12%. Around 90% of Southampton's £109.2m was equal share, and their merit payments were £1.6m on the UK side and £1m on the international side. First-placed Liverpool received £174.9m, only about 1.6 times as much.
The split is laid down in the Premier League Handbook. UK broadcast revenue, once certain costs have been taken off, goes half to the equal share, a quarter to merit payments and a quarter to facility fees. Payments to relegated clubs also come out of the equal share. Only merit payments are allocated by league position. First place gets 20 shares, second place 19, one fewer for each place below, down to a single share for 20th. International broadcast revenue is shared equally up to a threshold set each season, and anything above it is, as a rule, paid out in the same shares as merit payments. Central commercial revenue is, as a rule, shared equally.
La Liga's split is set by law, and only half the top flight's share is equal
La Liga's distribution is governed by Spain's Royal Decree-Law 5/2015. Broadcast revenue is split 90% to the top flight and 10% to the second division. Half of the top flight's share is divided equally, and the rest is split evenly between sporting results and social reach. The results money depends on league positions over the last five seasons, and the social-reach money on gate revenue and each club's contribution to TV broadcasts. I went through the detailed calculation in the column on 2023/24, when fourth-placed Atlético received more than third-placed Girona.
Before the adjustments, the 2024/25 figures ran from €146.69m for Real Madrid, the highest, to €41.00m for Leganés, the lowest, a gap of about 3.6 times. On the adjusted figures, Atlético took about 8.4% of the €1,292.09m distributed to the top flight, more than the 5% each club would get if the money were split equally among 20. Southampton's share was about 3.9% of the Premier League total, but because that total is so much bigger, they still received more than Atlético, whose percentage was higher.
Because of the CVC deal, La Liga's table has two columns of figures
La Liga's distribution table lists two amounts for each club: one under the criteria in the Royal Decree-Law, and one after the LaLiga Impulso adjustments. LaLiga Impulso is the plan under which the investment fund CVC put in €1,994m. The adjusted column reflects the payments and deductions agreed at La Liga's general assembly on 10 December 2021.
In 2024/25 the adjustments raised the figures for three clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Club, by 7.66%. Atlético's went down by about 2.6%, from €111.07m to €108.17m, and the other 16 top-flight clubs fell by roughly the same proportion. La Liga's announcement does not explain how the adjustment is calculated. Even on the unadjusted €111.07m, Atlético received less than Southampton.