A good accountant could be as useful as a good manager to aspiring Premier League football teams as the cost of maintaining even mediocrity in the top division spirals upwards, new figures show.

Crowds are flooding back to the stands and revenues in the English four divisions topped £2bn for the first time, but life at the top continues to be a struggle for all but an elite handful of clubs, according to the annual Deloitte review of football finance for the 2006-07 season.