The Deloitte ‘rich list’ of the world’s wealthiest football clubs (in terms of revenue) has just been released, with a few surprises thrown in. Despite similar on-field problems, Real Madrid and Manchester United have swapped positions with the Spanish club pulling in around 20million more in 2004-05. One reason could be the respective presence/absence of David Beckham taking its toll, or possibly the fact that Real bought the entire Brazilian national team, but David Jones – partner in Deloitte’s sports group – is optimistic about United bouncing back:
‘It would be foolish to write their obituary. United may have slipped off the top but it’s worth remembering that they are still the most profitable club in the world.
‘They will have an extra 7,500 seats in their ground from next season which will bring in more money and if they can improve on the pitch they should have good revenue growth for the next two or three years.’
One surprise is that Chelsea have fallen one spot to fifth who, overtaken by Juventus, you would think that with the London club on such a meteoric rise on and off the pitch in the past few years that revenues would be going up in kind. Other Premiership clubs represented are Liverpool (8), Newcastle (12), Tottenham (13), Manchester City (17), and Everton (18).
The full list (millions of pounds):
1 (2) Real Madrid 186.2
2 (1) Manchester United 166.4
3 (3) AC Milan 158.0
4 (5) Juventus 154.9
5 (4) Chelsea 149.1
6 (7) Barcelona 140.4
7 (9) Bayern Munich 128.0
8 (10) Liverpool 122.4
9 (8) Inter Milan 119.7
10 (6) Arsenal 115.7
11 (12) Roma 89.0
12 (11) Newcastle 87.1
13 (14) Tottenham 70.6
14 (17) Schalke 04 65.8
15 n/a Lyon 62.7
16 (13) Celtic 62.6
17 (16) Manchester City 60.9
18 n/a Everton 60.0
19 n/a Valencia 57.2
20 (15) Lazio 56.1
Read Newcastle rumors on the Newcastle section.
Caughtoffside.com – Sports blog offering Sports news & Sports articles