Manchester City has topped Deloitte’s list ranking the richest clubs in the world by revenue for the first time in their history after overtaking Barcelona, which has fallen three spots.
The Premier League champions were top of the accountancy firm’s Money League for the 2020-21 season with total annual revenue of £571.1million (€644.9million), just ahead of Real Madrid’s £537.7million. City came in sixth place in the Money League a year ago and is only the fourth club after local rivals United and Spanish giants Real and Barcelona to top Deloitte’s ranks.
The meteoric rise from a financial standpoint has followed the transformation of the club’s fortunes on the pitch, with City going from long-standing strugglers to English football behemoth following the Abu Dhabi takeover back in 2008.
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.
The Premier League leaders are joined in the top-10 by another five English clubs, with United in fifth place, Liverpool and Chelsea seventh and eighth respectively, and Tottenham in 10th place.
Bayern Munich finished third ahead of Barcelona, with Paris Saint-Germain in sixth and Juventus in ninth.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic altered the picture from the previous year, with United and Spurs both losing a spot and Liverpool dropping down two positions.
Of the top-10 clubs, only City, PSG, Chelsea, and Juventus recorded an increase in revenue from the previous year.
Barcelona, however, was the biggest loser on the Money League, sliding from first place to fourth – their lowest ranking since 2014 – following a summer in which their well-publicized financial problems forced them to part ways with Leo Messi.
Overall, Deloitte estimated that Money League clubs have missed out on well over €1.7billion of revenue over the past two 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 of £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.’
