Richest football clubs in the world revealed

MANCHESTER City have been named the world’s richest football club in the latest edition of Deloitte’s Football Money League.

City topped the list, which is based on revenue, for the first time after increasing their income to €645m (£571m) in 2020-21 – despite the effects of the pandemic.

The Premier League champions climbed five places, putting them ahead of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Manchester United.

Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Chelsea, Juventus and Tottenham Hotspur complete a top 10 of the world’s richest clubs that remains comprised of the same teams.

But Wolves and Aston Villa were new entrants to the top 20, which features a record 11 English clubs.

The pandemic had an impact on all clubs’ figures, and clubs from some leagues received payments deferred from the previous accounting year due to the delay in finishing the 2019-20 season.

With Covid-19 still severely restricting attendances and matchday income last term, almost all of City’s revenue came from broadcasting and commercial streams.

The club earned €336m (£297m) in broadcast payments, helped by their title win and run to the final of the Champions League.

That figure was higher than at any other team, while their commercial income of €308m (£273m) was also among the top five.

City’s revenue has grown from £13m to £571m in the 25 years that Deloitte has been compiling the annual report, it said.

Manchester United fell to fifth, their lowest position in the Money League and only just above PSG, despite finishing second in the Premier League and reaching the Europa League final.

Liverpool slipped two places in the list of the world’s richest clubs as they struggled to match the success of previous seasons but Chelsea retained eighth place after winning the Champions League.

Tottenham dropped to 10th behind Juventus and one place above neighbours Arsenal, having been badly hit by the absence of fans at their games.

Leicester City (15th) and West Ham (16th) returned to the top 20 thanks to strong on-field seasons, followed by newcomers Wolves and Everton.

While England boast 11 clubs in the 2022 Money League, Spain is the next best represented with three: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

Germany (Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund) and Italy (Juventus and Inter Milan) have two each.

In the 25 years since the Money League was first introduced following the 1996-97 season, City’s revenue has grown from £12.7million to £571.1million.

Overall, Deloitte estimated that Money League clubs have missed out on well over €1.7billion of revenue over the past two seasons seasons as a result of Covid-19.

Yet football has proved more resilient than other industries and while lockdowns contributed to the lowest matchday revenue in the 25 years of the publication,  broadcast revenue hit a record high £3.7billion across Europe’s top leagues.

Despite the challenges posed by Covid-19, the Premier League remained as strong as ever from a financial standpoint, providing 11 of the top 20 clubs on Deloitte’s list – the highest proportion ever.

Dan Jones, Head of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, expects the gap between the Premier League and its European counterparts to grow even wider in the near future.

‘Premier League broadcast rights values are set to pull further away from the other “big five” European leagues from the 2022-23 season,’ he said.

‘With the rollover of existing domestic arrangements on the same terms and the total value of international rights reportedly set to increase by 30 percent and exceed the value of domestic rights for the first time.’

Meanwhile, ten European nations have qualified for the 2022 World Cup and only three spots remain.

Eleven countries are still dreaming of earning their places at the tournament in Qatar in November and December, including Scotland, Wales, European champions Italy, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden

The play-off situation is a slightly different one now to that presented when the draw was made back in November, following Fifa’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, who were due to face Poland, have been disqualified from the competition, while Ukraine’s path A semi-final with Scotland has been postponed until June.

The 11 countries have been split into three sections, with only one nation advancing from each path.

Countries that have qualified at world football’s greatest show  are Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland.

– dailymail.co.uk/cityam.com

Richest clubs in the world