SOCCER is a game of two unequal halves when it comes to money, according to a new insight into British clubs' finances published today. There is a widening profits gap between those in the Premiership and teams in the three divisions of the football league.

Operating profits scored by Premiership sides totalled £49 million in the financial year 1994/95, whereas football league clubs had operating losses between them of just over £22.5 million.

"Premier league clubs now have the lion's share of football's income, £323 million out of a total of £468 million (or 69 per cent)," said Mr Gerry Boon, head of the football industry team at accountant Deloitte & Touche.

"To put it into perspective, Manchester United and Newcastle United together have a greater turnover than the whole of Division One," he said.

Mr Boon said his team expected the gap to widen with increasing Premiership match attendances and higher revenues following the new BSKyB television deal.

Operating profits in Deloitte & Touche's fifth Annual Review of Football Finance include income from gate receipts, sponsorship, TV royalties and merchandising against expenditure on wages and salaries, costs of goods sold and other running costs.

They do not include transfer fee income and expenditure and financing costs such as interest payments.

When these are taken into account, the whole of English football made an overall pre tax loss of £14.1 million in 1994/5 on total income up 21 per cent from the previous year to £468 million.

The report shows that Everton made the biggest pre tax loss at £9.4 million, followed by Newcastle United at £8.2 million from football activities. Both results were after heavy spending in the transfer market.

Four Premiership clubs reported an operating loss - Wimbledon, Ipswich, Queen's Park Rangers and Norwich.

. Gate receipts and season ticket sales accounted for only 42 per cent of total income, down from 45 per cent in the previous year.

. Clubs spent a record £110 million on transfers between themselves up almost 20 per cent on the previous year and twice the amount spent only five years earlier.

. Newcastle spent the most money on players at £21.2 million a record in a season for an English club - and more than a year before they splashed out a world record £15 million on Alan Shearer.

The review, shows that the bill for players wages easily outstripped inflation with an overall increase of 16 per cent on the previous financial year and a 22 per cent leap in the Premiership alone.