After winning a third consecutive Champions League title, Real generated a record £674.6-million, giving them the Money League top spot for the 12th time, and the first since 2014-2015. (Reuters)
Real Madrid have knocked Manchester United off the top of Deloitte’s Football Money League, but the Premier League has still flexed its financial muscle, and all of England’s “Big Six” feature in the top 10 for the first time.
The Deloitte list ranked clubs on how much money they earned from broadcasting, commercial deals and match-day revenues in the 2017-2018 season.
United had spent the past two years in first place in the financial charts, but they have slipped to third behind European champions Real and Spanish giants Barcelona.
Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Paris St Germain, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham make up the rest of the top 10.
Dan Jones, the report’s author and a partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “European football remains a bull market. We have seen Real Madrid shatter records, becoming the first club to break the three-quarters of a billion euro mark and claim a record 12th Money League title in the process.”
After winning a third consecutive Champions League title, Real generated a record £674.6-million, giving them the Money League top spot for the 12th time, and the first since 2014-2015.
All the British clubs were slightly affected by a 3% year-on-year decline in the value of sterling against the euro, but Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham — the north Londoners making the top 10 for only the second time — all enjoyed healthy increases in their turnover.
Liverpool’s run to the Champions League increased their revenue by a massive £90.6-million, mainly owing to £222.6-million in broadcast earnings. Although the extended stay at the national stadium is starting to annoy fans, the Wembley effect helped Tottenham to increase their matchday revenues by £26.5-million.
Arsenal’s income fell by nearly £30-million and they dropped from sixth to ninth in the table, illustrating the importance of Champions League TV money to every big club’s bottom line.
Taken together, the top 20 clubs, which all come from one of Europe’s “big five” leagues, earned £7.4-billion, up 6% on last year. — AFP