Man Utd On The Up In Deloitte Money List
Manchester United rose from fourth to second on the Deloitte football money league, but it was the champions of Europe, Real Madrid, who topped this list for the 10th straight year.
This has been achieved despite the Red Devils posting their worst Premier League season in history under David Moyes, thanks in part to a number of notable new sponsorship deals including adidas and Chevrolet.
No Champions League football this season will affect United’s standing in next year’s list, but a return to the elite next season, allied to their commercial might and TV income, could, in Deloitte’s estimation, see them at number one in 2017.
Real Madrid, who finally won their 10th Champions League last season after beating neighbours Atletico 4-1 last May, saw revenues increase to €549.5m (£459.5m) – revenue growth of €30.6m, from increases of 8% and 9% in broadcast and commercial revenues respectively.
The list, which is based on revenues for the 2013/14 season, saw Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain complete the top five.
In England, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool were placed sixth to ninth, all of them showing healthy rises in revenues.
Tottenham were in 13th spot, while there were new entries for Newcastle United and Everton at 19th and 20th, respectively. British clubs now occupy 14 of the top 30 places in the list.
The total combined revenue for the top 20 richest clubs rose by 14% to €6.2bn, the report found. The list only looks at revenues accrued and does not take into account club debts.
Meanwhile, broadcast rights deals pushed the entire Premier League into the wider top 40 highest earning clubs.
Austin Houlihan, senior manager at Deloitte, added: “The Premier League’s new broadcast deals have translated into big revenue increases across the English top flight.
“In fact, every Premier League club reported record revenues in 2013/14.”
