English FA Premiership: Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United each earned more than £53 million from television and prize money last season - at least £20 million more than any of their rivals in the English Premiership and heralding the rise of a new breed of super-rich club.
Arsenal and Manchester United both earned over £56 million while Chelsea brought in £53 million - compared to Liverpool and Newcastle whose income was around £32 million.
Success in the Premiership and the number of times their matches were screened live are among the reasons for the differences in earnings, but the main cause is the fact all three sides played in the Champions League.
Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea are in Europe's elite club competition again next season and the potential income will hammer home to United and Liverpool just how disastrous it would be if they fail to get through the qualifying rounds - as happened to Newcastle last season.
Henk Potts, a football finance expert with Barclays Stockbrokers, said: "These figures illustrate starkly that the gulf between the teams that play in the Champions League and those that don't is absolutely huge.
"We are seeing the appearance of super-rich clubs - Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea at the moment - with a couple of other clubs trying to get up to that level.
"Beneath that is a strata of mid-ranking clubs who appear forever doomed to remain at that status.
"What clubs such as Liverpool are trying to do is to get a couple of seasons in the Champions League in the hope that that will set themselves up in the Premiership and then try to guarantee Champions League football again in future seasons. That's also why Liverpool are trying to do some kind of a deal with Thailand at the moment.
"There are risks though - securing Champions League football is what Leeds really gambled on doing but of course they lost."
Potts emphasised that Manchester United's total income would overtake Arsenal's due to match-day takings and stressed that Arsenal needed to move to their new stadium before they could match their rivals overall.
Although the difference in TV and prize money income between the champions Arsenal (£56.6 million) and bottom club Wolves (£16.6 million) is huge, even the worst side in the Premiership earns vast sums compared to the leading clubs in the First Division.
All sides in Division One receive a £700,000 central payment from the English Football League from TV and sponsorship income plus £60,000 for a live home televised game (£10,000 televised away game).
