Real Madrid Overtake Man City To Top Money League

Real Madrid have overtaken Manchester City to become the highest revenue generating football club, according to analysis by Deloitte.

The Spanish club generated a record revenue of 831m euros (£710m) to top their Money League study from the 2022-23 season.

Man City dropped to second despite a record revenue of 826m euros (£705.6m), helped by their FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League Treble success.

Revenues for the top 20 clubs rose by 14% to a record 10.5bn euros (£8.97bn). That includes record commercial and matchday revenues of 4.4bn euros and 1.9bn euros respectively.

The Deloitte Football Money League is in its 27th year of analysing the highest revenue-generating football clubs globally, and reported that those clubs earned a record €10.5 billion ($11.4bn) in the 2022-23 season, a 14% increase on the previous year.

ESPN reports that Madrid, who were last at the top of the index five years ago, reported a record figure of €831 million for last season’s period, €118m more than the year before.

City earned €5m fewer than Madrid in second, with the top five filled out by Paris Saint-Germain (€802m), Barcelona (€800m), and Manchester United (€746m).

PSG and Barça’s ascension into the top five shows European clubs “regaining ground” on the Premier League, according to Deloitte, though Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham are all in the top 10.

Liverpool were the list’s biggest fallers, going from third to seventh, owing to a downturn in results in domestic and European competitions.

Newcastle and West Ham United are 17th and 18th respectively, ahead of reigning Serie A champions Napoli.

Deloitte said the figures revealed that commercial revenue had replaced broadcast money as the largest income stream for clubs on the list for the first time since 2015-16, excluding the COVID-19-affected 2019-20 season.

This is the second year Deloitte have analysed the women’s game — though the figures don’t include large markets such as the United States and Japan as data for those clubs was not made available.

The revenue ranking for women’s football also excludes any contributions from the clubs’ associated men’s side.

Barça topped the list for women’s teams generated revenue for 2022-23 revenue of €13.4 million, representing an increase of 74% on the previous year’s figures.

Man United (€8m) are in second place, followed by Real Madrid (€7.4m), Man City (€5.3m), and Arsenal (€5.3m).

Full men’s Deloitte Money Football League list

Real Madrid

Manchester City

Paris Saint-Germain

Barcelona

Manchester United

Bayern Munich

Liverpool

Tottenham

Chelsea

Arsenal