A REPORT into the finances of the Premier League makes clear the massive advantages that should flow from AFC Bournemouth’s promotion to top flight football.

Research by Deloitte said revenues in the league topped £3billion for the first time in 2013-14, up 29 per cent.

And it laid out the benefits of Premier League status for even the poorest performing clubs.

Dan Jones, partner with Deloitte, said in his foreword: “All 20 Premier League clubs are now ranked in the top 40 globally in terms of revenue, with even the smallest still earning enough to rank in the top six of any of the other ‘big five’ European leagues.

“This continues to be underpinned by the strength of the Premier League’s broadcast deals, driving a 48 per cent uplift in the combined broadcast revenues of Premier League clubs in 2013-14.”

Under new deals for broadcasting rights, even the lowest-earning Premier League club is likely to make more than £85million – surpassing total revenues from all sources for such famous European clubs as Ajax in Amsterdam.

Even the lowest-earning club of the 2013-14 season – Cardiff City, with revenues of £58m – earned more from broadcasting rights than all but five top flight European clubs.

In 2016-17, Sky and BT will pay £1.7bn a season for rights, up £1.1bn on just four years previously.

AFC Bournemouth is expecting around £130m from TV revenue from its first season as a Premier League club. Even if the club were relegated soon afterwards, it would earn ‘parachute payments’ in the following seasons.

Mr Jones wrote: “Previously, the biggest failing in a business sense of England’s top flight was its failure to convert its brand and market leadership into profits. This year changes that, with the Premier League reporting its first pre-tax profit since 1999. This record breaking profitability may move clubs from being seen as exciting and enticing trophy assets to being recognise as businesses capable of delivering consistent profits.”

The report said revenue was outpacing the wages bill by a wider margin. The wages to revenue ratio fell from 71 per cent to 58 per cent, its lowest since the 1998-99 season.

That contrasted with the Championship in which AFC Bournemouth played this season, where wages outstripped revenue for the second season in a row. Almost half the clubs in the Championship paid out more on pay than they brought in, with the wages to revenue ratio standing at 105 per cent.

Debt in the Premier League dropped by £148m to £2.4bn, with ‘soft loans’ – interest-free borrowing from owners – accounting for 74 per cent of that figure.