Manchester United have dropped to third place behind Spanish giants
Real Madrid and Barcelona in the 'rich list' of European clubs.
The Deloitte Football Money League sees the two Spanish clubs
secure the top spots but mainly due to the continuing decline of
the pound against the euro.
Real Madrid has topped the 'rich list' for the last five
years but Barcelona's unprecedented success last season where they
won five trophies has seen them overtake United despite a 9% rise
in income at Old Trafford.
The overwhelming dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona in
Spain is shown by the fact that no other La Liga side occupy a top
20 place, while there is a strong sprinkling of Italian and German
clubs, including Bayern Munich who are fourth.
The two Spanish giants have one significant advantage in
revenue terms in that they negotiate their own individual
television rights while the Premier League have a collective deal
which is shared much more equally among all 20 clubs.
The most notable change in the list, based on clubs' revenue
excluding transfer fees, sees Arsenal leapfrog Chelsea, with the
Gunners recording a 7% rise in revenue to £224million compared
to their London rivals' £206million - a 3% fall in revenue.
Dan Jones, partner in the sports business group at Deloitte,
said: "Chelsea's revenue has dropped because last season was a bit
worse than usual on the pitch, they had frozen season ticket prices
and there was not a lot going on in big new commercial
developments.
"Arsenal have the advantage in matchday income with a new
60,000-seater stadium and they made the semi-finals of both the
Champions League and the FA Cup.
"All the English clubs were impacted by the continuing
depreciation of the pound against the euro and the scale of this is
shown by the fact that if exchange rates remained at their June
2007 level, United would be top of the money league table."
Liverpool, who enjoyed an 11% revenue increase, rose a place
to seventh above AC Milan. There are seven English sides in the top
20 in Europe - Tottenham are 15th, Manchester City 19th and
Newcastle 20th.
Positions (last year's position in brackets):
1 (1) Real Madrid £341.9million
2 (3) Barcelona £311.7m
3 (2) Man Utd £278.5m
4 (4) Bayern Munich £246.6m
5 (6) Arsenal £224.0m
6 (5) Chelsea £206.4m
7 (8) Liverpool £184.8m
8 (11) Juventus £173.1m
9 (10) Internazionale £167.4m
10 (7) AC Milan £167.4m
11 (15) Hamburg £124.9m
12 (9) Roma £124.7m
13 (12) Lyon £118.9m
14 (16) Marseille £113.5m
15 (14) Tottenham £113.0m
16 (13) Schalke £106.0m
17 (n/a) Werder Bremen £97.7m
18 (20) B Dortmund £88.1m
19 (n/a) Man City £87.0m
20 (17) Newcastle £86.0m
