Real Madrid replaces Manchester United as richest club

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According to the annual Deloitte Football Money League, Spanish Primera Liga club Real Madrid has assumed the title of the world’s richest football club, a title previously held in recent seasons by English Premiere League club Manchester United.

Real Madrid earned GBP 275.7 million in revenues during the 2004/05 season, compared to GBP 246.4 million for Manchester United. The Deloitte Money League only takes into account audited turnover, however, and doesn’t look at net profits or other assets. Deloitte claims that revenues are the easiest and most comparable measure of a club’s wealth.

Dan Jones, Partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, commented: “Real Madrid’s top spot in the Deloitte Football Money League represents a remarkable transformation in the club’s revenue generating capacity. The club’s annual revenue has doubled during the past five seasons, primarily driven by commercial revenue streams. Growth for most other clubs in the table has tended to come more from broadcasting and matchday income, here Real Madrid has broken the mould.”

In contrast, Manchester United has seen a fall in annual revenues over the past year from GBP 171.5 million to 166.4 million. The new owners of the club, the Glazer family, expects to see growth in revenues in the next few years based on an increased capacity at their stadium, Old Trafford, of 7,500. Additionally, the club recently ended a GBP 9 million a year deal with Vodafone, expecting to sign an even more lucrative sponsorship deal.

In other figures released by Deloitte, the rich appear to be getting richer as the top 20 clubs on the list combined for net revenues of more than GBP 3 billion for the first time.

The global Top 20 is entirely comprised of European clubs, with English clubs occupying eight of the positions, Italian clubs five, plus three clubs from Spain, two from Germany, and one club from each of France and Scotland. Not coincidentally, 14 of the Top 20 participated in the UEFA Champions League.

Deloitte official Dan Jones commented: “Whilst the on-pitch competition to be crowned Champions of Europe starts again, this can also have a significant influence on the position of clubs in the top 20. The second round of this season’s Champions League will see six of our top 10 clubs play each other.”

The Deloitte report also noted that revenues must be turned into success on the field in order for teams to remain in the Top 20, a feat accomplished by Manchester United over the years.

The Top 20 could have a different look in the next few years. English Premiere League club Chelsea has signed new sponsorship deals with Adidas and Samsung, while fellow Premiere League club Arsenal are moving into a new, larger stadium next season. In Spain, Primera Liga club Barcelona is currently negotiating with Samsung on a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal.

According to Alan Switzer, from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte: “During the next few seasons, we expect to see a stronger financial showing from German and French clubs. In each country there are new broadcast deals that will significantly enhance clubs’ revenue. In addition, Germany will host the World Cup in over EUR 1 billion worth of new and redeveloped stadia. This new asset base now provides German clubs with the opportunity to increase both matchday and non-matchday revenue, as many UK clubs have over the past decade.”

Position (last year), 1 (2) Real Madrid, 2 (1) Manchester United, 3 (3) AC Milan, 4 (5) Juventus, 5 (4) Chelsea 6 (7) FC Barcelona, 7 (9) Bayern, 8 (10) Liverpool, 9 (8) Internazionale, 10 (6) Arsenal, 11 (12) AS Roma, 12 (11) Newcastle United, 13 (14) Tottenham Hotspur, 14 (17) Schalke, 15 (n/a) Olympique Lyonnais, 16 (13) Celtic, 17 (16) Manchester City, 18 (n/a) Everton, 19 (n/a) Valencia, 20 (15) SS Lazio. The full Delloite report will be released later this year.