Money League 2023/24

Enough Is Never Enough

Deloitte have published the 28th edition of their annual Football Money League, which ranks the world’s leading football clubs by revenue, this time covering the 2023/24 season.

The Money League remains a benchmark report of the financial strength of football clubs, though Deloitte themselves note that there are many other metrics that could be used to compare clubs, which are not covered by their analysis, such as profitability, player sales and debt.

Although they did not exactly “boldly go where no man has gone before”, the consultants did reveal that the 2023/24 season “unlocked a new frontier”, as Real Madrid became the first football club to record more than €1 bln in revenue.

Overview

The Top 20 revenue generating clubs once again reported record Money League revenue, as this increased by €649m (6%) from €10.6 bln to €11.2 bln.

This was driven by new highs in both match day, up €204m (11%) from €1.9 bln to €2.1 bln, and commercial, up €444m (10%) from €4.4 bln to €4.9 bln. However, broadcasting was flat at €4.3 bln.

As a result, commercial remained the most important revenue stream with 44%, followed by broadcasting 38% and match day 18%.

In Sterling terms, the growth was more or less the same, as the exchange rate against the Euro only very slightly strengthened from 1.15 to 1.16, with total revenue also rising 6% (£558m) from £9.1 bln to £9.6 bln.

Match day revenue increased by 11% (€204m) from €1.9 bln to €2.1 bln, so this was once again the fastest growing revenue stream. This was comfortably a new record, being 38% (€567m) higher than the pre-pandemic peak of €1.5 bln in 2018/19, and the first time that it had broken through the €2 bln barrier.

The growth has been driven by a combination of stadium development, increase in capacity, more premium match day offerings and, of course, ticket price increases. This has led to match day accounting for 18% of total revenue, its highest share since 2014/15.