The 20 Richest Teams in the World in 2008

By: chris | February 11th, 2009

It’s time for the yearly Deloitte rankings, which display the revenue each clubs earns from the past calendar year (2008 here, Rip Van Winkle). There are zero surprises in the top ten – it’s all England, Spain and Italy – and there’s even less of a surprise as to who’s tops (it begins with Real and ends with Madrid), but there are a few surprises in store: mainly why is the bottom half of the Prem table well-represented and where’s the Bundesmoney coming from? Oh, and Spain appears to be a bit more financially unstable than initially thought, because outside of a certain two teams, they’re nowhere to be found.

The list, courtesy of Corriere dello Sport, in millions of euros (€).

1. Real Madrid 365,8
2. Manchester United 324,8
3. Barcelona 308,8
4. Bayern Munich 295,3
5. Chelsea 268,9
6. Arsenal 264,4
7. Liverpool 210,9
8. Milan 209,5
9. Roma 175,4
10. Inter 172,9
11. Juventus 167,5
12. Olympique Lyonnais 155,7
13. Schalke 04 148,4
14. Tottenham 145
15. Hamburg 127,9
16. Olympique Marseille 126,8
17. Newcastle 125,6
18. Stuttgart 11,5
19. Fenerbahce 111,3
20. Manchester City 104

The 2007 list can be found here for comparison and the 2006 edition here.

Finally, Real Madrid fans can breathe a sigh of relief – for once this year they’ve overtaken Barca in something.

Obviously doing well in the Champions League the previous year does wonders for one’s revenue (see: Fenerbahce) – and watch Juventus rocket up those standings next year – while wearing lederhosen and enjoying a fine ale is also a big bonus – as is the case with Mike Ashley.

The Premiership is well represented, obviously – mainly because the EPL is run by a bunch of useless swindlers only concerned with making a buck – but the Prem is still massively in debt and could soon find itself where Italian find themselves after their years of financial gorging (cycles, baby, cycles).

What’s also interesting is that the plummet of the pound has devalued some rankings; if it hadn’t gone all Olympic diver on us there would be nine teams instead of seven from Ingerland and ManU would top the rankings, not Real. So there, blame the pound.

Each situation is wildly different – i.e. Roma’s parent company is €350m in debt and needs most of that cash to keep collectors off the front steps of the Olimpico, whereas Man City might blow the whole of their bounty on a squad player for the reserves – but it’s certainly true that being on this list goes a great deal in helping teams keep a hold on Champions League spots and fend off the less financially fortunate. As ever, the rich get richer….