Real Madrid top Deloitte Football Money league table

Thursday, 09 February 2012 09:53

Real Madrid continue to top the global football financial league table taking top spot ahead of their Spanish rivals Barcelona for a seventh consecutive year.

Deloitte publish its Football Money League each year and Real Madrid has dominated the top of the list recently. Previously Manchester United were top of the list for eight years in the late 1990’s and early part of the 21st century.

The table is calculated by the revenue earned over the year. It is not indicative of the relative overall financial position of the club as many clubs are in debt overall, including Manchester United and Liverpool both bought by American owners who have used part of the assets of the football clubs to service debts on other parts of their business.

Overall the top 20 clubs earned €4.4 billion last year, a rise of three per cent, and nine teams in the top 20 recorded growth of above ten per cent.

The list reveals that football operates in a slightly different way to the rest of the economy with the loyalty of supporters helping clubs during an economic downturn.

Dan Jones, Partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “Continued growth of the top 20 clubs during 2010/11 emphasises the strength of football’s top clubs, especially in these tough economic times. Whilst revenue growth has slowed from 8% in 2009/10 to 3% in 2010/11, their large and loyal supporter bases, ability to drive strong broadcast audiences and continuing attraction to corporate partners has made them relatively resilient to the economic downturn.”

Real Madrid will face pressure for the top spot from Barcelona next year following a lucrative shirt deal signed by the Catalan side with the Qatar Foundation which will be worth about €20 million a year. The difference between first and second in football’s financial league could be settled by events on the field.

Manchester United take third spot, ahead of Bayern Munich and Arsenal and Chelsea who make up the top six in that order.

Both Spanish clubs are in the knock-out stages of the Champions League and if one team ends up winning it the revenue generated could be sufficient to take them to top of the money list.

UEFA has introduced a financial fair play break even requirement that means teams have to watch their costs will be introduced in 2013 and will impact on future expenditure.

Paul Rawnsley, a Director in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte commented: “The focus on football’s future financial sustainability is more prevalent in Europe than at any time in the past 20 years. We remain keen to see that translated into a better balance between revenue and expenditure. UEFA’s break-even requirement, to be assessed for the first time in 2013, is helpful in driving this improvement.”

The higher echelons of the list are quite predictable, much like the teams that make up the top of the domestic league tables in England and Spain, a sign that money continues to heavily influence on-field performance.

For the fourth successive year the top six of the football money league is made up of real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Manchester United’s position could be affected by their failure to qualify for the knockout stages of this years’ Champions League.

AC Milan and Internazionale from Italy are in seventh and eight positions, Liverpool are ninth and Schalke from Germany make up the top ten. All 20 clubs in the list come from the main five European leagues with France providing two clubs.

Manchester City is expected to jump into the top ten next season due to success on the pitch and financial support from Abu Dhabi investors.

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