Premier League debt outstrips rest of Europe combined

PREMIER League clubs' debts are more than the rest of Europe's clubs put together – but the English top flight also accounts for almost half of clubs' assets across the continent.

The figures are contained in a new Uefa report into the state of football's finances, and shows the total debt of the Premier League clubs as being 3.4billion, 56 per cent of the total across Europe.

Premier League clubs' assets are 3.8billion, accounting for a 48 per cent share of the assets among all European clubs. What is worrying for English clubs, however, is that the total value of the debt is so close to the value of the assets.

In Spain, which has the next highest debt of 858million, the assets are worth 2.5billion, three times the value of the debts. In Italy, the debt is 442million and the assets worth 1.3billion.

Uefa's report, the European Club Footballing Landscape, has looked at the 2007-08 accounts from all 732 clubs licensed by football's European governing body. The 80-page document's analysis of the Premier League reports that many clubs have used their stadiums and grounds as collateral to borrow money. The report accepts much of the debt is linked to the leveraged takeovers by the Glazer family at Manchester United and the Hicks/Gillett buy-out of Liverpool. "Some of the long-term debt is linked to new stadia such as Arsenal's, and in other cases already-built assets provide security for commercial lenders," says the report, adding that the leveraged buy-outs have been "so far acting principally as a burden rather than to support investment or spending".

The report did not include the debts of Portsmouth and West Ham because they had not been granted Uefa licences that year due to their financial problems.

The report comes after it was revealed that Manchester United's 716million debt is greater than the entire cumulative sum owed by all 36 clubs in the top two divisions in Germany. Uefa president Michel Platini is pushing for a system where clubs in the Champions League and Europa League will only be allowed to spend what they earn.

However, a Premier League spokesman said: "The critical point is not the absolute size of any debt, but how sustainable it is.

"That is where we and Uefa are closely aligned and why we introduced a raft of financial criteria this season to ensure the sustainability of clubs. Benefactor investment is not the only model available to Premier League clubs, but it is not something we would wish to preclude being available to our member clubs."