World's Richest Soccer Clubs Revealed

With the awards season upon us, its no surprise that Deloitte's sport unit has revealed the world's richest football clubs list. Real Madrid who have dominated this particular list for the last 4 years have yet again topped it with annual revenues of 401.4m euros. The phenomenal figures based on data from 2008/09 season also see's Real Madrid become the first global sports team to top annual revenues of 400m euros according to the Football Money League.

Real Madrid's arch rivals Barcelona take the second spot ahead of English Premier League Champions Manchester United who drop to third. Manchester United had dominated the list for 8 years until Real Madrid dethroned them. The authors however, do point out that Manchester United would have been top of the list had the value of the pound not fallen. Despite the exchange rate issues, seven of the top 20 teams listed in the rich-list are from England. Tottenham (15th), Manchester City (19th) and relegated club Newcastle United (20th) making it in the second half of the list. All the 20 clubs are from the 'big five' Eurpean leagues with Germany contributing 5 clubs, Italy 4 and 2 each from Spain and France.

World's Richest Football Clubs

1) Real Madrid: 401.4m euros
2) Barcelona: 365.9m euros
3) Man Utd: 327m euros
4) Bayern Munich: 289.5m euros
5) Arsenal: 263m euros
6) Chelsea: 242.3m euros
7) Liverpool: 217m euros
8) Juventus: 202.3m euros
9) Inter Milan 196.5m euros
10) AC Milan: 196.5.m euros

This Deloitte review however, may be a little misleading as it does not include the cost of transfer fees or player wages, or VAT and other sales taxes, and concentrates solely on day-to-day income from football business. The income includes money from ticket sales, sponsorship, merchandising and other commercial revenues, television monies, corporate hospitality and non-match day stadium use. With Portsmouth becoming the first Premier League club to enter administration, and giants such as Manchester United and Liverpool in financial trouble despite performing well in the league shows that the problem of overspending is still a major concern. The Deloitte list, however, does indicate that their is still a lot of money in the game and with careful administration through measures such as wage-ceilings and prudent transfer fees, football can get through this precarious financial period unscathed.