Real Madrid top Deloitte Football Money League as Champions League revamp boosts Premier League’s rivals
An expanded and more lucrative Champions League has helped Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain all earn more than any Premier League club last season, according to the latest Deloitte Football Money League.
Real Madrid stayed top of the annual rich list with record-breaking revenue of €1.2bn (£975m), ahead of LaLiga rivals Barcelona (€975m/£819m), German giants Bayern (€861m/£723m) and Champions League winners PSG (€837m/£703m).
Liverpool were fifth with €836m (£702m), marginally ahead of Manchester City (€829m/£696m) and Arsenal (€822m/£690m). Fellow English sides Manchester United (€793m/£666m), Tottenham Hotspur (€673m/£565m) and Chelsea (€584m/£491m) completed the top 10.
Last season saw the biggest overhaul of the Champions League since its inception more than 30 years ago, with a new format increasing the number of matches and improved media and commercial rights deals worth around €4.4bn a year.
Deloitte’s report, published today, notes that “successful on-pitch performance remained a key influence in where clubs finished in the Money League”. Real Madrid and Bayern both reached the quarter-finals, while Barcelona made the last four and PSG lifted the trophy.
“The Champions League as a whole, when you look at media rights in a new cycle, there was significant growth relative to some of the other markets in which growth has plateaued,” Deloitte’s Theo Adaji told CityAM.
“That’s made the Champions League relatively more lucrative. The new format enables more games so that has a matchday [revenue] impact as well.”
Europe’s top teams have long been seeking a way to mitigate the financial advantage provided by the Premier League’s huge media rights deals, and the Champions League revamp – as well as the aborted European Super League – was designed to address that gap.
Stadiums may help Real and Barca pull away
Real Madrid and Barcelona have also invested heavily in improvements to their stadiums, the Bernabeu and Camp Nou. While Barca banked significant sums from selling seat licences, both sides are likely to enjoy major financial benefits in the coming years.
“That might give both Barcelona and Madrid a chance to pull away from a match day perspective,” said Adaji, who added that all top clubs were looking to increase revenue from premium seating and hospitality.
Liverpool earned the most of any English club despite exiting the Champions League in the last 16, having banked prize money from topping the table in the group phase and then going on to win the Premier League.
But the proximity of domestic rivals Manchester City and Arsenal means that either could overtake Liverpool in the next ranking, depending on their on-field performances this season. Arsenal currently top both the Premier League and Champions League.
Chelsea won Fifa’s money-spinning expanded Club World Cup but were only 10th in the Football Money League as their finances suffered from their Champions League absence.