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The untouchables Football Money League

Sports Business Group February 2011

We expect a battle between Spain’s two superclubs for top spot in the Money League for the next few years at least

Contents

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Welcome How we did it Ups and downs The Deloitte Football Money League Three pronged attack TV Times

Edited by Dan Jones Sub-editor Austin Houlihan Authors RichardBattle, Adam Bull, Martyn Hawkins, Simon Hearne, Rich Parkes and Alexander Thorpe Sports Business Group at Deloitte PO Box 500, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester, UK M60 2AT Telephone: +44 (0)161 455 8787 Fax: +44 (0)161 455 6013 E-mail: sportsteamuk@deloitte.co.uk www.deloitte.co.uk/sportsbusinessgroup

February 2011

Football Money League 2011 Sports Business Group 1

Welcome

Welcome to the14th edition of the Deloitte Football Money League, in which we profile the highest earning clubs in the world’s most popular sport. The Money League is published nine months after the end of the 2009/10 season, and is therefore the most contemporary and reliable analysis of clubs’ relative financial performance.
There are a number of methods that can be used to determine clubs’ relative size –including measures of fanbase, attendance, broadcast audience, or on-pitch success. Indeed the relative wealth of certain clubs’ owners has filled many column inches in recent times. However, the Money League focuses on the clubs themselves, comparing revenue from day to day football operations which we believe is the best publicly available financial comparison. Whilst last year’s Money League,covering the 2008/09 season, showed football’s top clubs’ relative resistance during the early stages of the economic downturn, it wasn’t until the 2009/10 season, which is the focus of this edition, that we expected to see the full impact on clubs. We continued to assert that the game’s top clubs would be well placed to meet these challenges given their large and loyal supporter bases, ability todrive broadcast audiences, and continuing attraction to corporate partners. This was more than borne out by clubs’ revenue performance in 2009/10. The combined revenues of the top 20 Money League clubs surpassed €4 billion for the first time, with a total of €4.3 billion being an 8% increase on the previous year. All bar three of the top 20 clubs achieved revenue growth in 2009/10. The establishedlarge and loyal supporter bases and historic on-pitch success underpin the brand strength of football’s top clubs. These characteristics mean that a handful of clubs continue to drive the highest revenues and populate the top positions within the Money League.

The same ten clubs populate the top ten places in the Money League for the second successive year, with the top six ranking identical tolast year. Six of those top ten have been in our Money League top ten in 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. 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 expectto see one or two clubs make that step in the next year or two.

Spanish one-two Congratulations to Real Madrid who head the Money League for the sixth successive year. Los Blancos will doubtless be confident that they can match Manchester United’s eight year hegemony enjoyed from 1996/97, the first edition of the Money League, through to 2003/04. FC Barcelona is placed second in the Money Leaguecompleting a Spanish one-two for the second successive year. Whilst the Catalan club could not quite match its domestic double and UEFA Champions League winning season of 2008/09 in 2009/10, it retained the La Liga title and added the FIFA World Club Cup and UEFA Super Cup. It is Barca’s on-pitch success that has underpinned its revenue growth in recent years. Conversely, Real’s recent revenue...