On Feb. 10, 2011 the Deloitte’s Football Money League released its annual statistics on which football teams were the top moneymakers for the 2009-2010 football season. These statistics are measured on the day-to-day revenues from football operations. This year's list focused on the clubs’ fan bases, on-pitch, attendance and broadcast audience figures.
Deloitte’s Football Money League
The Deloitte’s Football Money League is a ranking system of football clubs by revenue generated from football operations. This U.K. accounting firm annually profiles the highest earning clubs in the world's most popular sport. All of this year's top-20 football clubs are from the big five European leagues, with England contributing seven clubs, Italy four, Germany four, and France and Spain represented by two clubs each.
Football teams – movers and shakers
According to the Deloitte’s Football Money League report, “The Untouchables,” Manchester City has climbed the most places, up nine to 11. Its revenue growth in 2009-2010 was due to commercial revenue increases. Deloitte says that a big challenger to the top 10 is Tottenham Hotspur. This football club climbed three places to 12 and has the potential to make it into the top 10 next year.
This year’s report stated that for the first time ever, the combined revenues of the top-20 football clubs surpassed $6.5 billion US. Deloitte’s Football Money League also stated that they anticipate a battle between Spain’s two “superclubs” for top spot for the next few years.
Real Madrid and FC Barcelona
For the sixth successive year, Real Madrid has been on top of the Football Money League. In the 2009-2010 football season, Real Madrid generated just over $700 million US making them the first team to surpass revenues in excess of £400 million. In the previous year, they brought in just over $650 million US.
FC Barcelona placed second in the Money League making this a Spanish one-two for the second straight year. This year they generated just over $647 million US, an increase of approximately $52 million US from last year.
Other team standings
All figures that appear are in US dollars and are approximate as they were converted from British pounds as they appeared in Deloitte’s 2009-2010 report.
Position 3 - Manchester United - $569 million
Position 4 – Bayern Munich - $525 million
Position 5 – Arsenal – $445 million
Position 6 – Chelsea – $416 million
Position 7 – AC Milan – $383 million
Position 8 – Liverpool – $366 million
Position 9 – Internazionale – $365 million
Position 10 – Juventus – $333 million
Position 11 – Manchester City – $248 million
Position 12 – Tottenham Hotspur – $237.78 million
Position 13 – Hamburg SV – $237.62 million
Position 14 – Olympique Lyonnais – $237.45 million
Position 15 – Olympique de Marseille – $229 million
Position 16 – Schalke 04 – $227 million
Position 17 – Atletico de Madrid – $202 million
Position 18 – AS Roma – $199 million
Position 19 – VfBStuttgart – $186 million
Position 20 – Aston Villa - $178 million
The above figures were based on revenues from match days, broadcasting and commercials.
Sources:
2009/2010 Deloitte Football Money League Report: The Untouchables.
Karen Stephenson - Karen has written for several newspapers and print media in addition to many online publications. She holds a B.A. in English and an ...
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