Forza Futbol welcomes back our Money expert Allen Dodson from VillarrealUSA.com (twitter:@groguet01) who gives us his take on the Football Money League. 

Deloitte’s Sports Group has released its annual “Football Money League” report, and it’s sobering reading, especially when so much of the football news these days concerns clubs applying for administration, failing to pay players and tax authorities, and the like.

The top 20 clubs accounted for €4.4 billion in revenues in 2010-11, over a quarter of the European football market.

The top seven positions in the list of revenue-generating clubs are unchanged from last year: in order, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Chelsea, and AC Milan.   Liverpool and Inter Milan switched places this time, the Reds falling below Inter, and Schalke moved from 16^th to 10^th on the strength of their fine Champions League campaign.

Of the bottom 10 teams, Valencia, Napoli, and Borussia Dortmund were just below the top 20 last time but came in at the expense of Stuttgart, Atletico Madrid, and Aston Villa.

But that only tells part of the story.  There’s a real stratification in Europe: there were 28 teams with €90m or more in revenues in 2010-11.

Wealth breeds more wealth.  Deloitte expect both Real Madrid and Barcelona to pass €500m in revenues within a year or two, buoyed by new sponsorship and commercial deals.  This is EVEN BEFORE the proposed new la Liga TV contract kicks in.  And matchday revenues continue to increase as well.  Indeed, one of the striking elements in this report is that the two Spanish clubs at the top increased their revenues by 9-10% last year, while the five clubs below them stood still or saw revenues decline.

In fact, Real Madrid’s matchday revenues (no radio/TV, no sponsorship, etc.) would ALONE be enough to get them into the Top 20 of the Money League, and those revenues are larger than Valencia’s entire revenue stream!  And Barcelona’s matchday revenues are only slightly smaller than Madrid’s.

Note that Benfica and Ajax are the only clubs from “smaller” leagues in the top 28.  Since a major part of Champions League revenues derive from the broadcast pool payment, which are itself dependent on the value of CL broadcast rights in individual countries, it will be difficult for clubs from such leagues to break into the top 20, unless they have a very deep CL run.

CL revenues are important for the teams in the top 20, of course, but given the size of the gaps between many of the teams, a successful European season will bring increased revenue, but little change in the overall Money League table.

As the report notes, “we are starting to see widening gaps between clubs at the top of the Money League.  In addition to the €84m gap between second placed Barcelona and third placed Manchester United, there is a €70m gap between fourth placed Bayern and fifth placed Arsenal.  These are unlikely to be bridged in the short term unless a club fails to qualify for the Champions League”.

We can expect to see clubs already in the top 30 perhaps move into the very bottom of the top twenty if they have an excellent CL run, especially if they are from countries such as Spain and Italy with large broadcast pools, but we’re not going to see much change above that.

If higher revenue streams do translate into success on the pitch, it looks like the Champions League trophy might remain in Spain for some time to come.

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