THE Premier League chairmen will gather for their summer meeting this week facing the reality that the four clubs at the top are increasing their financial stranglehold on the English game.

Figures for the 2008/9 season reveal the Champions League is now worth around double the amount to the top four clubs than it was three years ago.

Premier League champions Manchester United earned a total of £90m in prize money and TV cash from all competitions last year – nearly £60m more than bottom club West Brom – with £33.7m coming from their march to the Champions League final.

Fourth-placed Arsenal earned £73.4m compared to fifth-placed Everton’s £49.5m with the Gunners bringing in £23.4m from European football.

The figures do not include ticket money and merchandise income where the big four also dominate.

The rise in income from the Champions League is partly due to the strength of the euro against the pound, partly to the increase in the value of the competition’s TV rights and also to the fact that English clubs have dominated the latter stages of the competition in recent years.

It was the disparity between the top four and the rest that led to Bolton chairman Phil Gartside to outline revolutionary proposals for a twotier Premier League, but those are not on the agenda for this week’s meeting in Leicestershire and appear to have been put on the backburner.

Nevertheless, the figures may increase pressure in some quarters for the Premier League members to look once again at how their income is distributed among the 20 clubs.

Despite a recent change to the distribution, the number of times a club’s Premier League matches are screened live still has a significant impact on earnings.

For example, no fewer that 25 of United’s games were screened live and for each of those the club earned £480,000, totalling £12m, compared to the eight clubs who received the minimum payment of £4.8m – fees for at least ten games are now guaranteed even if a club has fewer televised matches.

Even relegated Newcastle brought in £9.6m from 20 games compared to £4.8m for neighbours Sunderland.

One club chairman said: ‘‘There is a feeling among some chairmen that the distribution of fees for live matches could be fairer still but we will gauge the general feeling at the summer meeting before we decide whether to push for any change.’’