Money League 2022/23

Andromeda Heights

Deloitte have published the 27th edition of their annual Football Money League, which ranks the world’s leading football clubs by revenue, this time covering the 2022/23 season.

Deloitte claim that the Money League remains “the industry’s most reliable independent analysis of the top earning clubs”, which is probably fair comment. However, they also note that there are many other metrics that can be used to compare clubs which are not covered by their analysis, such as profitability, player sales and debt.

Overview

The Top 20 revenue generating clubs reported record Money League revenue, as this increased by €1.3 bln (14%) from €9.2 bln to €10.5 bln.

This was driven by new highs in both match day, up by €500m (37%) from €1.4 bln to €1.9 bln, and commercial, up €617m (16%) from €3.8 bln to €4.4 bln. There was also growth in broadcasting, though this only increased €204m (5%) from €4.1 bln to €4.3 bln.

As a result, commercial overtook broadcasting to become the most important revenue stream.

The growth was even higher in Sterling terms, as the exchange rate against the Euro weakened from 1.18 to 1.15, with total revenue rising 17% (£1.4 bln) from £7.8 bln to £9.2 bln.

Match day revenue increased by €500m (37%) from €1.4 bln to €1.9 bln, driven by a combination of stadium development and the removal of the remaining COVID restrictions, which allowed clubs to play in front of full capacity crowds.

This was comfortably a new record, being 24% (€364m) higher than the pre-pandemic peak of €1.5 bln in 2018/19.

As a reminder, the vast majority of games were played behind closed doors in 2020/21, while 2019/20 was also impacted by the pandemic for the last couple of months, which greatly reduced receipts in those seasons.

The Money League clubs also set a new record in commercial revenue, which rose €617m (16%) from €3.8 bln to €4.4 bln.

This highlighted a growing trend whereby football clubs have looked much more at the possibilities offered by commercial operations, such as non-football events and merchandising sales, in order to offset the slowdown in broadcasting rights.

In contrast, broadcast revenue only increased by a modest 5% (€204m) from €4.1 bln to €4.3 bln. This was largely because the 2022/23 season fell within existing domestic broadcast cycles for the German, Italian, and French leagues, while the start of the new domestic rights deals in England and Spain were relatively flat compared to the previous agreements.

This was below the €4.5 bln peak in 2020/21, though that is a bit misleading, as that season included some revenue deferred from 2019/20 for games played after the accounting close, both in domestic leagues and UEFA competitions.

Top 20

Real Madrid return to the top of the Money League table for the first time since 2017/18 with a club record revenue of £723m, just ahead of the previous leader, Manchester City, who slipped to second place with £718m, even after winning the treble.

Madrid’s £723m is the second highest ever in Money League history, only surpassed by Barcelona’s £741m in 2018/19.

There were four other clubs reporting more than £600m in revenue: Paris Saint-Germain generated £697m, which helped them climb two places to third, their highest ever position, followed by Barcelona £696m, Manchester United £649m and Bayern Munich £647m.

In positions 11 to 20, three teams from continental Europe (Eintracht Frankfurt, Napoli and Marseille) replaced a trio of English clubs in Leicester City, Leeds United and Everton, which demonstrated the influence of on-pitch performance on revenue.

On the other hand, England’s three leading clubs lost ground this year, as Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United all dropped down the rankings.

The number of English clubs in the Top 20 decreased from 11 to 8, which is the first time that this has dipped below 10 since 2019/20. Furthermore, in the previous year clubs from England occupied three of the top four places, while this year there is only one.