Deloitte Money League: Real Madrid overtake treble winners Manchester City to top table

Real Madrid have overtaken Manchester City to become the highest revenue generating football club, according to analysis by Deloitte.

City drop to second despite a record revenue of 826m euros (£705.6m), helped by their FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League Treble success.

Revenues for the top 20 clubs rose by 14% to a record 10.5bn euros (£8.97bn).

That includes record commercial and matchday revenues of 4.4bn euros and 1.9bn euros respectively.

Commercial revenue has overtaken broadcast revenue as the largest income stream for the first time since 2015-16, excluding the Covid-19 impacted 2019-20 season, with 17 of the top 20 clubs reporting a year-on-year increase.

That is largely down to retail sales, non-matchday events such as concerts and the recovery of sponsorship income which had been impacted by the pandemic, suggesting clubs are exploring alternative sources of revenue to become less reliant on broadcast deals.

Broadcast income rose by just 5% to 4.2bn euros, largely due to the 2022/23 season falling within existing domestic broadcast cycles.

On average the 20 clubs had an average revenue of more than 500m euros.

Real Madrid top the table for the first time since 2017-18 despite losing to Manchester City in the Champions League semi-final and finishing second behind Barcelona in La Liga, though they did win the Copa del Rey, Uefa Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup.

Paris Saint-Germain (€802m), Barcelona (€800m) and Manchester United (€746m) complete the top five.

Liverpool were the biggest fallers, dropping from third to seventh with revenues of €683m (£583m) after they could only finish fifth in the Premier League and were knocked out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage.

Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal also make the top 10, with Newcastle and West Ham 17th and 18th respectively.

Leicester City, Leeds United and Everton drop out of the top 20, meaning the number of Premier League clubs drops to eight after at least 10 clubs featured in the past two years.

The Hammers, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid were the only sides in the top 20 to report a drop in revenue.

Analysis

Tim Bridge, lead partner in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group

Another record-breaking year for Money League clubs represents the ongoing financial might of the football industry.

As clubs appear to no longer be able to rely on exponential broadcast revenue growth, creating a more commercially focused business model will support them to achieve greater control over their financial stability.

In the coming seasons, European clubs may look to further diversify their revenues in order to gain control over a larger proportion of their total revenue. This will enable clubs to not only protect themselves from the variability of on-pitch performance, but also wider challenging macroeconomic conditions and changes to the football system.

At a time when clubs face a greater degree of financial regulation, striking the right balance between securing the best on-pitch talent with sustaining a sound financial foundation through commercial activities will be key.

For non-British clubs Deloitte has used an average exchange rate for the year ending 30 June 2023 (€1 = GBP 0.87; €1 = BRL 5.4; €1 = USD 1.05).