City top of Deloitte money list after handling pandemic best

LONDON • Manchester City have topped the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time as the world's highest revenue-generating club in a 2020-21 season affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previous leaders Barcelona dropped to fourth in the 25th edition of the table, the Spanish club's lowest position since 2013-14.

City, with revenues of €644.9 million (S$962.7 million) and a number of sponsors linked to their Abu Dhabi owners, climbed six places. The Premier League champions and current leaders are only the fourth club to top the Money League after Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Real (€640.7 million) were second and Bayern Munich (€611.4 million) third. Barcelona had revenues of €582.1 million, United (€558 million) were fifth, their lowest to date, Paris Saint-Germain (€556.2 million) sixth and Liverpool (€550.4 million) seventh.

European champions Chelsea (€493.1 million), now up for sale and with sanctions imposed on Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were eighth.

Eleven of the top 20 clubs were from the Premier League, the highest proportion ever, with Wolves (€219.2 million) entering for the first time in 17th position.

"The impact of Covid-19 is stark with the lack of fans in stadia unsurprisingly causing the lowest match-day revenue in the 25 years of the publication," the report said.

"Broadcast revenue is at a record high as a result of deferrals in distributions related to the delayed 2019-20 season."

The report said Money League clubs missed out on more than €2 billion of revenue from the middle of the 2019-20 season to the end of last season, taking revenue back to the levels of nearly five years ago.

"Looking ahead to the 2023 Money League covering the 2021-22 season, we expect revenue of Money League clubs to reach record levels, as they bounce back from the effects of the pandemic and push towards collective revenues of €10 billion," it added.

Premier League broadcast rights values were, meanwhile, set to pull further away from the other "Big Five" European leagues from 2022-23, said Dan Jones, head of Deloitte's sports business group.

 

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE