Three Spanish football teams, Real Madrid, F.C. Barcelona, and Atlético de Madrid, are among the 20 richest clubs in the world according to the study "Football Money League: Rising stars" prepared by Deloitte. The report analyzes the financial information of the clubs corresponding to the 2016/17 season.
Manchester United (United Kingdom) tops the ranking with revenues of 676.3 million euros, only 1.7 million more than Real Madrid (Spain), which occupies second place with 674.6 million. There had never been such a small difference between the top two teams in this ranking.
Real Madrid has unseated its great rival in Spain, F.C. Barcelona, from second place in the ranking, which has revenues of 648.3 million euros. Fourth place goes to Bayern Munich (Germany), with 587.8 million euros, while fifth place is occupied by the other club from the city of Manchester, Manchester City (United Kingdom), with 527.7 million euros.
Among the 20 clubs with the highest revenues also appears Atlético de Madrid, which occupies the 13th position with 272.5 million euros.
This report analyzes three fundamental concepts: the clubs' ability to generate revenue from matchday activities (tickets and others), broadcasting rights (both in local leagues and European competitions), and commercial activities (sponsorships, merchandising, stadium tours, and other operations).
In this year's top 20, Southampton FC (United Kingdom) appears for the first time thanks to its broadcasting rights revenue. Everton (United Kingdom) and Napoli (Italy) are once again among the 20 clubs with the highest revenues.
The sum of the revenues generated by the top 20 clubs in the ranking reaches 7.9 billion euros, 6% more than last year and double that of a decade ago, when they totaled 3.9 billion.