The latest figures are the highest in the history of the competition

The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has grown its turnover to £44.3 million – the highest ever figure in the league’s history, according to newly published accounts.

The latest figures from the SPFL show that turnover has increased by £2.4 million (6%), compared to the previous record of £41.9 million set last year.

The increase is mainly due to the league’s new Sky Sports TV deal, as well as revenue growth from the SPFL’s other domestic and overseas broadcast deals.

The figures also show that fees to clubs have increased by £2 million to £33.7 million – a further increase of 6%, with total group payments to clubs totaling £37.9 million, compared to the £ 35.8 million from last year.

This was in addition to the net proceeds of £2.1 million distributed to the four clubs that took part in the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals and final at the National Stadium.

Neil Doncaster, CEO of the SPFL Group, said: “We are very proud to today announce record turnover and membership fee payments to our member clubs, as we continue to build on the strong income growth and commercial deals of recent years.

“Given the challenging market and economic conditions at the moment, these encouraging results reinforce the huge popularity of Scottish football, as well as the interest it is generating from our broadcasters and our growing number of partners.

“In recent months we have signed a significant new title sponsorship deal with William Hill, as well as a new TV contract with Premier Sports. The SPFL has just reported significantly higher attendances per capita than any other European competition in a new UEFA report, and while we will never be complacent, these results give us a strong foundation on which to further improve our performance.

Murdoch MacLennan, chairman of SPFL, said: “These latest annual results are a testament to the hard work and talent of the SPFL’s member clubs and the efforts of the dedicated SPFL team who work tirelessly on their behalf. “We are extremely pleased to be able to offer our members the highest annual payouts in the history of Scottish football and thank our members for their strong support.”