The World’s 25 Most Valuable Soccer Teams

By: chris | April 9th, 2009

Another day, another “world’s richest list”. This one maybe even anticipated, as it’s from one of those big names in the world of finance: Forbes. But it should be mentioned that buyer beware – though it says the world’s Most Valuable Soccer Teams (and by world they, of course, mean Europe) Forbes has been known to botch a thing or two in the past regarding the world’s most popular sport.

Alright, it’s typically rubbish. However, there are some interesting conclusions drawn on the list. Top of the list being that the Premier League is in a heap of trouble as of the eight most indebted teams, six ply their trade in England.

I do believe, however, some of the debt figures are misleading. Such as Chelsea, which is reportedly in debt equal to 92% of its value. A massive figure, but that money is owed to…Roman Abramovich. So basically they’ve been dabbling in the transfer market by taking loans off the owner is just a fancy way of saying he pays for stuff. I’m not too sure Chelsea as an organization is deeply worried about paying that back.

Though I could absolutely see Roman up and leaving one day with a conversation somewhat resembling this….(NSFW, particularly if it’s payday and/or your company owes you money…like if you work for Valencia)

Now without further ado, the list:

1 Value of team based on past transactions and current stadium deals (unless new stadium is pending) without deduction for debt. 2Includes stadium debt. 3Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. NM: Not Meaningful. Sources: Deloitte and Touche; company documents; Forbes.

[Link]
[The Deloitte Rankings]

Teams by country.:

England: 9
Germany: 6
Italy: 4
Spain: 2
France: 2
Scotland: 2

Three things:

i. Congratulations to Manchester United, who were met with this honor by news that even with a record turnover and two trophies last year, their debt is still ’soaring’. Now at a solid £700m. Or, to keep this in dollar terms, $1.02 billion.

Something says that top spot doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
ii. The Prem will tank eventually. It’s inevitable and not even the 39th game can don a shiny enough cape to save the day.
iii. Spain and Italy had better stop worrying about England and start looking back towards Germany, where the smart buck would say the Bundesliga is about to make it a Big Four.