The Walmart of professional services firms just released the latest installment of its Football Money League report, which profiles the financial performance of the highest revenue-generating clubs in the world of football … er, soccer. And here’s why all you hooligans should be interested in this year’s report, according to Deloitte:
This year’s edition is a landmark publication for more reasons than one, as it marks 25 years of Deloitte Football Money League and covers the first season (2020/21) to be impacted by COVID-19 from start to finish.
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The 2020/21 football season began, and ended, where the 2019/20 season left off: with the devastating impact of COVID-19 continuing to be felt around the world. Football, and sport more widely, was resilient, but not immune with clubs balancing obligations in respect of health and safety in order to fulfil fixtures and provide entertainment and ultimately complete the 2020/21 season.
Despite these ongoing challenges the football industry continued to demonstrate its resilience offering respite to many in such testing times … but the impact of COVID-19 is stark with the lack of fans in stadia unsurprisingly causing the lowest matchday revenue in the 25 years of the publication, whilst broadcast revenue is at a record high as a result of deferrals in distributions related to the delayed 2019/20 season (completed in the 2020/21 financial year).
According to the report, matchday revenue totaled only €111 million for 2020-21, but broadcast revenue totaled €4.6 billion, a €1.4 billion increase from 2019-20. Total revenue generated by the 20 Money League clubs was €8.2 billion, up less than 1% from 2019-20 but more than €1 billion lower than the €9.3 billion generated in 2018-19. And one other thing: Money League clubs have missed out on well over €2 billion of revenue over the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons because of the Rona, Deloitte says in the report.
But you’re not interested in this report for all the doom and gloom. You wanna know if your favorite club is among the 20 richest in the world. First, here’s a breakdown of the 20 Money League clubs by league:
- English Premier League: 11
- La Liga: 3
- Serie A: 2
- Bundesliga: 2
- Ligue 1: 1
- Russian Premier League: 1
For the first time ever, Manchester City, the reigning Premier League champs, topped the Money League with revenue of £571.1 million (€644.9 million), a pretty big leap for a team that placed sixth in last year’s report (€549.2). Behind City is Real Madrid, which generated the most revenue (€640.7 million) out of the clubs in La Liga. Barcelona, which was No. 1 in 2019-20 (€713.4), fell three spots to fourth (€582.1 million) in Deloitte’s latest report, Barça’s lowest position since the 2013-14 season. 2021 Bundesliga champ Bayern Munich is third (€611.4 million) and is the richest club in that league. Paris Saint-Germain is sixth (€556.2 million) and the top revenue-generating team in Ligue 1. (Protip: you can watch PSG matches—past and present—as well as all Ligue 1 matches on the beIN SPORTS Extra channel on the Pluto free streaming app.) FC Zenit generated the most revenue among clubs in the Russian Premier League (€212 million), coming in at No. 19.
Four EPL clubs—Wolverhampton (first time ever), Aston Villa, Leicester City, and West Ham United—cracked the Money League top 20 this year, while Schalke 04 (Bundesliga), Olympique Lyonnais (Ligue 1), SSC Napoli (Serie A), and Eintracht Frankfurt (Bundesliga) fell out of the top 20. Here’s a graphic from Deloitte that shows the 20 Money League clubs for 2022:
You can also find which clubs finished 21st to 30th in total revenue in the report, which you can download here.
Well Chelski is being sold off by its Russian Oligarch owner due to sanctions. Not sure how Abramovich will receive payment as SWIFT has been turned off for Russian residents. Still, the British government never raised any questions when he brought the Club and will probably ask even less when it is sold.
The Dallas Cowboys didn’t even make the list?
Real Football.