Likes of Manchester United and Aston Villa had their coffers full of cash after the BSkyB’s £304 million five year deal kicked in with full effect at the end of the first premier league season. Every single club had received £750000 at the start of the season and then received further cash for their league positions and amounts for live matches.
Manchester United received the highest £815210 for finishing first whereas Villa took home £750000 for the second-place finish. The bottom club Nottingham Forest received the lease amount of £37055 whereas Newcastle United only received £50000 for winning division one.
Manchester United was planning to use the funds to finish the work in their stadium to take their capacity to 45000 but Villa manager Ron Atkinson insisted they were not in a hurry to splash the cash.
Ron Atkinson said “Its quite feasible that we may not even spend a penny this summer. We will have a look at the market and see what’s available.”
