Deloitte Football Money League Report Published
The annual Deloitte Football Money League report has been published and ranks Manchester City as the richest club in the world by revenue.
The football finance experts yearly audit of the footballing world covers the 2020/21 season, with Deloitte given access to the figures from most clubs, despite many of the clubs not having published their accounts for that campaign yet.
The big news from the report is that Manchester City is top of revenue charts for the first time. In a season in which many fans were missing from stadiums around the world, City’s comparatively low reliance on matchday revenue compared to most of their rivals, helped them reach top spot.
The report explains, “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).
Premier League broadcast rights values are set to pull further away from the other ‘big five’ European leagues from the 2022/23 season with the rollover of existing domestic arrangements on the same terms and the total value of international rights reportedly set to increase by c.30% and exceed the value of domestic rights for the first time.
Therefore, in the 2021/22 season, outside of improved on-pitch performance (particularly in UEFA club competitions) we expect limited growth in clubs’ broadcast revenue. International rights value increases from the 2022/23 season for Premier League clubs may provide a platform for them to climb up the Money League.”
Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona, and Manchester United make up the rest of the top five revenue earners, while Liverpool and Chelsea occupy seventh and eight respectively.
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