Football has become a multi-billion-pound business in recent decades – and European leagues’ popularity in emerging markets means there’s more to come, says Matthew Partridge. Twenty-five years ago British football was transformed by the decision of the clubs in the first division of the Football League to rebrand as the FA Premier League and strike new commercial deals. Since then football has grown from a beloved national pastime to a multi-billion-pound business. The 20 Premier League clubs had total revenue of €4.8bn (£4.3bn) in 2015/2016, making it Europe’s biggest league, say accountants Deloitte. The top division in Germany was second, with €2.7bn, while Spain, France and Italy collectively accounted for €5.84bn. Counting secondary divisions, European clubs have collective revenues of €24.6bn. So football is now unequivocally a very big business. While ticket sales are important, the real driver of revenue growth is broadcasting rights, which have shot up exponentially. The first major television deal that the Premiership agreed with BSkyB in 1991 was worth £304m over five years – equivalent to £60.8m a year. By contrast, the current deal – involving Sky and BT, which runs from 2016 to 2019 – was worth £5.14bn for three years. This is nearly…