Manchester United tops Deloitte’s Football Money League report

The Premier League club remains the leading club in the world in terms of revenue generation, according to the eighth edition of the Deloitte Football Money League. The report does not measure a club’s profitability, but instead concentrates on income from day to day football operations without accounting for a club’s budget for outgoings, or money generated from any takeover deal. Deloitte has split this day to day revenue into three categories – match-day revenue, broadcasting revenue and commercial revenue. The club has the world’s strongest match-day revenue of €92.4m for the 2003/04 period, demand for season tickets at its 67,700-capacity Old Trafford stadium has been so high in recent years that the club has announced plans to increase capacity to 76,000. Spanish Primera Liga club Real Madrid moved two places to second in the League with combined revenue of €236m. The club has seen strong growth in broadcasting and commercial deals for the period, although the club is second to German 1.Bundesliga club Bayern Munich in terms of commercial generation. The German club generated commercial revenues worth €105.2m for the 2003/04 period, compared to Madrid’s €85.9m. Manchester United had the third highest commercial revenue of €72.1m. English Premier League club Chelsea moved from tenth place to fourth with strong match-day revenues, boosted by a significant increase in European fixtures compared to 2002/03, accounting for 37% of total income. The club, which is well placed to win significant silverware this season under manager Jose Mourinho, could become a serious challenger to Manchester United at the top of the list in the next few years. With its team boasting a number of exciting international stars, the backing of Russian millionaire Roman Abramovich and the club challenging for trophies in four competitions, Chelsea would need to significantly boost its commercial revenue (€50.9m) to challenge Bayern Munch, Real Madrid and Manchester United (€72.1m). The position of Italian Serie A clubs AC Milan (€222.3m) and Juventus (€215m) in the top five can be attributed largely to having the ability to negotiate individual broadcasting deals. AC Milan topped the broadcasting mini-league with €134.4m from its deal with Sky Italia and Mediaset, while Juventus boasted broadcasting revenue of €130.1m for the period. This stands in stark contrast to the club’s standing in the matchday revenue minileague with Juventus bottom of the 20 clubs and AC Milan 15th. The report highlighted the commercial revenue streams of clubs as being paramount to future growth. "Deloitte has highlighted football's most important partnership for many years. A club's relationship with its fans has to be a true partnership," Robert Elstone, director in the Sports Business Group said in the report. "There are only so many endorsed products the fans will buy and there is a risk of affinity overload as official status and logos appear on more and more products."

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