Manchester United will go into the 2008-09 season with the biggest financial war chest in the history of football. Figures released yesterday showed that massive television income has boosted payments to the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs by almost £300million.

Payments for last season ranged from £29.1 million for Derby County, who were relegated as the worst Premier League club on record, to the £49.3 million handed out to United as champions. United can expect another £30 million if they beat Chelsea to win the Champions League final next week. That will give the club the biggest payout in world football.

United's championship-winning earnings consist of a flat fee of £22.8million paid to every club as part of an equal share of the revenue pouring into the Premier League's coffers from television broadcasting deals, worth a total of £2.7 billion over three years. As the most-watched club in the country, United took a further £12.1million from the 25 live matches in which they featured, while their merit payment, or prize-money for finishing top of the Premier League, was £14.4million. By contrast, Derby's earnings from television appearances were a guaranteed minimum payment for the least-watched clubs of £5.6million, while their merit money was a paltry £720,000.

Premier League executives insist the new payment structure ushered in by the record television deal is fairer to small clubs, although the gap between top and bottom has widened from £15.3million to more than £20million. However, all Premier League clubs will receive a huge increase in their payments, with some almost doubling their money: Aston Villa will reap £42.3million after finishing in sixth place, compared with the £22.4million they collected in the 2006-07 season.

Everton, too, have earned a huge improvement, with their fifth place, banking a cheque of £42.1million, compared with £25.3million last year.

Chelsea's dour style, though, has cost them: Newcastle United followed Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool into fourth place as the team most shown on live television. The result was that Newcastle earned almost £10million from 20 live screenings, while Chelsea had 18, bringing them £9.1million.

Just how important that final-day escape from relegation was to Fulham is demonstrated by the Premier League figures. Even finishing fourth from bottom on goal difference was worth £31.3million and the club can expect to earn at least the same again if they can survive next season.

Leaving the Premier League drastically reduces income, even if some of the television revenues trickle down to the lower levels of football. Clubs relegated from the Premier League - Reading, Birmingham City and Derby this season - receive “parachute payments” for the first two seasons outside the top flight to soften their landing in the second tier. These payments are up from almost £6.5million to £11.4million, a significant amount in the Coca-Cola Championship, where broadcasting revenues are on average about a tenth of that figure.

The figure of £125million split between payments to the Football League, charities and other good causes in Britain and abroad puts the extraordinary amount of money pumping through English football into context - ten years ago, £125million was the Premier League's total turnover. The Football League's share of this is £77.4million, which includes £45.6million-worth of parachute payments, plus another £31.8million in payments to clubs and cash for youth development and community schemes.

The Football League will today announce attendance figures of more than 16million for its three divisions in 20007-08. Although the figure is thought to have dipped slightly, Lord Mawhinney, the League chairman, will point out that attendances still outnumber Serie A, in Italy, and are among the biggest in the world.

Television revenue for 2007-08 season

(2006-07 in brackets)

Manchester United £49.3m (£32m)
Chelsea £45.6m (£30.9m)
Arsenal £47m (£29m)
Liverpool £45.4m (£28.4m)
Everton £42.1m (£25.3m)
Aston Villa £42.3m (£22m)
Blackburn Rovers £40.2m (£22m)
Portsmouth £40.4m (£23m)
Manchester City £39.7m (£21m)
West Ham United £36.8m (£21.1m)
Tottenham Hotspur £36m (£27.3m)
Newcastle United £39.2m (£21.2m)
Middlesbrough £34.2m (£20.5m)
Wigan Athletic £33.4m (£18.4m)
Sunderland £33.6m (£6.5m*)
Bolton Wanderers £32m (£24.6m)
Fulham £31.3m (£20.4m)
Reading £30.6m (£23.6m)
Birmingham City £29.8m (£6.5m*)
Derby County £29.1m (n/a)
Total £815,175,812 (£502,533,570)

* denotes parachute payment for clubs promoted from the Coca-Cola Championship.

The total payout to the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs, excluding parachute payments, was £758.2m (up from £463.6m in 2006-07).