The Premier League’s operating profits are expected to double to at least £260m in the 2007/08 season and clubs in the league are still the biggest earners in world football, according to Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance.

The figures were taken from the 2005/06 season and show that, with revenues of 2bn euro (£1.4bn), the English Premier League generated more than 600m euro (£408m) more than the next highest earner in Europe.

Of the top-tier European leagues, only the Premiership – which recorded 200m euro (£138m) – the German Bundesliga (72m euro, £49m) and the French Ligue 1 (37m euro, £25m) managed to obtain operating profits.

The gap between revenues of the average Championship club and the average Premier League club widened to a record £56m and is likely to increase to £70m in the 1007/08 season.

However, the number of Premier League clubs that reported pre-tax profits fell from 14 in 2004/05 to nine in 2005/06.

It is predicted that total revenues for Premier League clubs will reach 2.5bn euro (£1.7bn), as new broadcasting deals come in to play, which is more than 1bn (£680m) euro than the expected revenue of the next highest earning league.

The Premiership’s total wage costs increased by 9 per cent to £854m, with five clubs – Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle United – incurring total wage costs of more than £50m. Deloitte said it expects wage costs to exceed £1bn for the first time in the 2007/08 season.