Cash-strapped Barca still lead annual Deloitte club football rich list
KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Barcelona, €1bn in debt and at risk of bankruptcy, have bizarrely retained their status as the world’s richest football club.
Deloitte’s latest Football Money League sets Barcelona marginally ahead of Real Madrid despite their revenue falling by €125m to €715.1m in 2019-20.
European champions Bayern Munich climbed to third ahead of Manchester United in the annual rich list.
Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are also in the top 10. Arsenal remain 11th and Everton are 17th.
The top 10 1. FC Barcelona (€715.1m) 2. Real Madrid (€714.9m) 3. Bayern Munich (€634.1m) 4. Manchester United (€580.4m) 5. Liverpool (€558.6m) 6. Manchester City (€549.2m) 7. Paris Saint-Germain (€540.6m) 8. Chelsea (€469.7m) 9. Tottenham Hotspur (€445.7m) 10. Juventus (€397.9m)
Almost all of the 20 teams in the ranking, which is based on revenue, saw their income fall due to Covid-19. The collective revenue of the world’s richest clubs fell €1.1bn in comparison with the previous year.
Barcelona and Real Madrid remain comfortably ahead of all other clubs thanks to their vast commercial appeal.
There is very little between the two La Liga titans, however, with Real Madrid’s revenue just €200,000 less. Barcelona saw a sharp decline from their record-breaking 2018-19 revenue of €840.8m.
That was in part down to the pandemic preventing fans from attending matches and delaying completion of the season.
Madrid’s revenue fell by a relatively modest €42m in comparison, to €714.9m, owing in part to strong commercial growth.
Bayern Munich overtook Manchester United as a result of their income remaining fairly stable while the Premier League club’s plummeted.
The Bundesliga champions’ revenue fell by just four per cent, or €26m, to €634.1m.
They benefited from the German league completing its season before the end of June, and therefore receiving associated payments during the 2019-20 financial year.
Other leagues, such as the Premier League, did not finish until July or August, meaning that some fees from broadcasters were rolled over into 2020-21.
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