Deloitte have published the 29th edition of their annual Football Money League, which ranks the world’s leading football clubs by revenue, this time covering the 2024/25 season.
The Money League remains a benchmark report of the financial strength of football clubs, though Deloitte themselves have noted 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.
That may be the case, but it is still an essential resource, not least because it reveals revenue figures (and implied wages) earlier than many of the clubs, who have not yet published their accounts for last season.
Overview
The headline is that the Top 20 clubs once again reported record revenue, as this increased by €1.2 bln (11%) from €11.2 bln to €12.4 bln, thus generating more than €12 bln for the first time.
This was driven by new highs in all three revenue streams. This time it was match day that led the charge, rising by €338m (16%) from €2.1 bln to €2.4 bln, while there was also good growth in broadcasting, up €448m (11%) from €4.3 bln to €4.7 bln, and commercial, up €428m (9%) from €4.9 bln to €5.3 bln.
Although the percentage growth was smallest in commercial, this revenue stream had the honour of being the first to break through the €5 bln barrier.
As a result, commercial remained the most important revenue stream with 43%, followed by broadcasting 38% and match day 19%.
In Sterling terms, the growth was lower, as the exchange rate against the Euro strengthened from 1.16 to 1.19, with total revenue rising 8% (£793m) from £9.6 bln to £10.4 bln.
Nevertheless, this was still the first time that revenue had exceeded £10 bln.
Match day revenue increased by 16% (€338m) from €2.1 bln to €2.4 bln, so this was the fastest growing revenue stream for the fourth season in a row. This was comfortably a new record, having grown by a hefty 61% (€906m) more than the pre-pandemic peak of €1.5 bln in 2018/19.
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.
In addition, a couple of clubs have benefited from Personal Seat Licences (PSL), whereby super VIP customers pay for the right to purchase a season ticket for a specific seat annually for many years.
These factors have led to match day accounting for 19% of total revenue, its highest share for ten years.
As a reminder, the vast majority of games were played behind closed doors in 2020/21, while the season before that was also impacted by the pandemic in the last couple of months.
Clubs are trying to generate much more money from their stadia, so many of them are actively looking at stadium development, which is a costly exercise, but can deliver a significant return on investment.
The traditional driver of growth at football clubs, namely broadcast revenue, also saw a significant increase, rising 11% (€448m) from €4.3 bln to €4.7 bln, thus accounting for 38% of total revenue.
This was a new high, overtaking the previous €4.5 bln peak in 2020/21, even though that was inflated by revenue deferred from 2019/20 for games played after the accounting close.
However, it is worth noting that broadcasting has only increased by 16% in the last six years, i.e. before the pandemic struck.
