It’s a Spanish one-two in the Deloitte Sports Business Football Money League for 2011. Real Madrid head the Money League for the sixth siccessive year. FC Bareclona came second. Whilst Real held a €40m revenue advantage over Barca in 2009/10, Barca’s revenues should exceed €400m in the next edition of the Money League, particularly given the club’s new shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar.
It’s a Spanish one-two in the Deloitte Sports Business Football Money League for 2011. Real Madrid head the Money League for the sixth siccessive year. FC Bareclona came second. Whilst Real held a €40m revenue advantage over Barca in 2009/10, Barca’s revenues should exceed €400m in the next edition of the Money League, particularly given the club’s new shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar.
The same ten clubs populate the top ten places in the Money League for the second successive year, with the top six ranking identical to last year. Six of those top ten have been in the Deloitte Money League for each of the last ten years. Each of this year’s top ten clubs has been in for at least eight of the last ten years and none has ever dropped below 13th in that period.
Deloitte’s Dan Jones commented, ‘This shows both the enduring strength of these clubs and the scale of the challenges to those aspiring to break into that elite group. Nonetheless, we expect to se one or two clubs make that step in the next year or two.’
Whilst Spanish clubs claim the top two spots in the Money League, England retains the largest representation from any single country, again with seven clubs. Jones commented, ‘This strength in depth is driven by the scale and relatively even distribution of the Premier League’s centrally negotiated broadcasting monies and the success of the English clubs in generating higher matchday revenues than their continental competitors.’
Manchester United came in 3rd, Arsenal took 5th place and Chelsea were 6th. Liverpool slipped back to 8th place.
As in last year edition, all of this year’s 20 clubs are from the ‘big five’ European leagues with Germany and Italy contributing four clubs each, Spain three clubs and France two clubs. Two German clubs, Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund, drop out of this year’s top 20.
VB Stuttgart and Aston Villa return to the top 20 after a one year and five year absence respectively. Athlético de Madrid’s success in winning the European League allow it to claim 17th position, its highest ranking since the 12th place secured in the first edition of the Money League in 1996/7.
Manchester City has climbed the most places, up nine to eleventh position. A more immediate challenger to the top ten is Tottenham Hostpur who climb three places to 12th. The three leading English clubs outside the top 20 are Everton, Fulham and West Ham United.
There is a strong correlation between a club’s wage bill and on-pitch success, particularly within domestic competition. This year’s Money League clubs have won 43 of the 50 domestic league titles available in the ‘big five’ countries over the past ten years. The link is less strong in European competition although only one club from outside the Money League top ten – Porto in 2003/4 – has won the Champions League in the past ten years.