28 Aug 2008

Profitable Bundesliga set to overhaul Serie A

7:48 am on 28 August 2008

A new report says Germany's Bundesliga is likely to overtake Italy's Serie A this season as the second-richest European football league.

The English Premier League is easily the richest with 5 billion dollars of revenue -- but the Bundesliga's just 21 million dollars behind the Italian top division in 3rd place, and may pass Serie A if German clubs succeed in the wealthy Champions League.

The study, by the StageUp sport business research firm, has Spain's Primera Liga fourth in revenues because of a disparity between big and small clubs in television rights sales.

Only the dominant clubs, Real Madrid and Barcelona, negotiate those rights on an individual basis.