Bournemouth face financial meltdown if this season is not completed.
They are most reliant of all the clubs in the Premier League on TV money.
But, in total, 13 of last season’s top-flight outfits generated more than 70 per cent of their income from broadcasting revenues.
And they will all be thrown into chaos should they have to pay anything back to TV companies.
The University of Liverpool ’s annual Premier League club valuation report claimed the finances at the Vitality Stadium are further evidence of the myth that the Premier League is paved with gold for club owners.
And it added that “football has been chopped off at the knees in terms of ability to make money”.
Even before the current pandemic, the club bankrolled by Russian oligarch Maxim Demin and boasting England striker Callum Wilson (left) lost £30million in the year to May 2019.
Since the Cherries were in League One in 2012/13, income has increased by £126m.
But player costs have gone up by £134m – including £40m in the last two years.
TV revenue in 2018/19 was £116m – 88 per cent of income – for a club with a ground capacity of only 11,329. The Premier League secured broadcasting deals worth £9.2bn with overseas rights now up to a record £4.35m.
Failure to complete the remaining 92 top-flight fixtures could see £768m owed by the Premier League clubs – though the bigger clubs would owe more. Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert with the University’s Centre for Sports Business Group, said: “My gut reaction is that BT and Sky Sports are both committed to the Premier League in the long term.
“So they will work out some form of solution without necessarily demanding money back.
“However, when it comes to the overseas broadcasters, the Premier League is another product on their roster.
“If the Premier League fail to deliver then, as far as the overseas broadcasters are concerned, the Premier League is in breach of contract.
“ Bournemouth are vulnerable if the broadcasters decide not to pay or ask for money back.
“In players such as David Brooks, they have got some really good players who would be attractive to other clubs.
“But the transfer market is going to collapse this summer.
“It is very much going to be a buyers’ market and the anticipated sales proceeds that Bournemouth might have had in respect of their star players will be severely diminished.”
