It's not just a game - in fact it's a massive industry with expensive commodities (the players), a huge customer base (the fans) and a staggering merchandise inventory (the kit).
I am, of course talking about football.
The 20 highest earning football clubs in the world generated a record £8.2bn in combined revenue in the last year alone, that's an increase of 11% on the previous year, according to the 23rd edition of the Football Money League from Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.
As Amazon Prime gets in on the broadcast action, the amount of money clubs earn from televised events remains the largest individual revenue stream, making up 44% of total income.
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, says:
"Growth in the football industry continues to outpace that in other sectors, and the top 20 Money League clubs are on track to generate over €10 billion collectively in a single year in the near future."
FC Barcelona has taken the top spot in the Money League for the first time ever and at the same time has become the first club to break the €800m barrier. Real Madrid has fallen to second place; and the gap between first and second is now the highest in the publication’s history (€83.5m).
The Premier League continues to contribute the most clubs to the Money League top 20, with eight clubs making the cut in this year’s edition.
Manchester United remains in third with revenue of £627.1m (€711.5m) but currently forecasts revenue of £560-580m in 2019/20 as a result of not qualifying for this season’s Champions League, a result that would likely see the Red Devils fall to their lowest ever Money League position in next year’s edition.
Beyond the Premier League, clubs from the other ‘big five’ football leagues – France’s Ligue 1, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A, also feature in the top 20.
- The 2018/19 season saw impressive double-digit percentage growth in all revenue streams for Paris Saint-Germain as the club rose to fifth in the Money League, its highest position since 2014/15.
Juventus regains 10th place in this year’s Money League as revenue increased 17% to €459.7m. The arrival of talismanic forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who alone has more Instagram followers than Real Madrid and FC Barcelona combined, increased Juventus’ commercial appeal.
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