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In the newly announced "Football Money League" list, compiled annually by one of the world's leading consulting firms "Deloitte", Madrid's "Real" rose to the first place in terms of revenue last season, ending the eight-year dominance of "Manchester United".
In the list released on Wednesday of the twenty highest-earning football clubs, revenues exceeded three billion euros (about 10.4 billion litas) for the first time. The top twenty richest clubs are dominated by European clubs - eight from England, five from Italy, three from Spain, two from Germany, and one each from France and Scotland.
In the 2004-2005 season, the Royal Madrid club earned 276 million euros in revenue, which was 17 percent more than the previous year and twice as much as five seasons ago. Malcom Glazer's "Man Utd" dropped to second place, with revenues reaching 246 million euros, about 13 million less than the previous year.
The success of Madrid's "Real", which had not won a single trophy for several years, is a kind of phenomenon, but the club's management consistently works in this direction by acquiring world-class stars like England's national team captain David Beckham, Frenchman Zinedine Zidane and Brazilian Ronaldo, the statement said.
"Madrid's 'Real' changed its financial strategy and doubled its revenue in just four years," commented Deloitte representative Dan Jones. - "Although President Florentino Perez's strategy of attracting 'galacticos' to the team did not always bring the expected results on the field, it significantly increased the club's revenue."
In third place on the list are Italy's giants "Milan" with revenue of 234 million euros, but they are closely chased by Turin's "Juventus", who last year won their 28th "Scudetto" in the club's history and increased revenue by seven percent. English champions London's "Chelsea", which was acquired in July 2003 by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and turned into one of the strongest clubs, dropped one position to fifth place with 221 million euros in revenue.
Also making it to the top ten and crossing the 170 million euro revenue threshold are Spain's champions "Barcelona", Germany's champions who moved to a new stadium, Munich's "Bayern", Champions League winner "Liverpool", as well as Milan's "Inter" and London's "Arsenal".
The top three clubs in terms of revenue mainly received income from different sources. "Real" earned about 124 million euros from commercial activities, while "Man Utd" brought in 102 million from matches, and "Milan", like other Italian clubs, mainly earned from broadcasting rights - this time former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's club received about 138 million.
The only newcomer in the top 20 - finishing an impressive fourth place in the English "Premier" League - is Liverpool's "Everton", with thirteen clubs now entering this list nine years in a row since its creation. According to Deloitte, it is expected that in the future, several more clubs from France and Germany, who are receiving more money from broadcasting rights, will also vie for a spot on the list of top revenue-generating clubs.
List of the highest-earning World clubs, compiled by "Deloitte" Place/Place last year/Club/Revenue 1. (2) Madrid - 275.7 million euros; 2. (1) - 246.4 million euros; 3. (3) - 234 million euros; 4. (5) Turin - 229.4 million euros; 5. (4) London - 220.8 million euros; 6. (7) - 207.9 million euros; 7. (9) Munich - 189.5 million euros; 8. (10) - 181.2 million euros; 9. (8) Milan - 177.2 million euros; 10. (6) London - 171.3 million euros. 11. (12) - 131.8 million euros; 12. (11) - 128.9 million euros; 13. (14) London 104.5 million euros; 14. (17) Gelsenkirchen 97.4 million euros; 15. (-) 92.9 million euros; 16. (13) Glasgow 92.7 million euros; 17. (16) 90.1 million euros; 18. (-) Liverpool 88.8 million euros; 19. (-) 84.6 million euros; 20. (15) Rome 83.1 million euros.
