The aspect of money in football is becoming more and more prominent as the years go by. For clubs to constantly compete at the highest level, they need to earn big bucks.
Premier League clubs are among the highest-earning clubs in the world, mostly because of their huge revenue from broadcasting. However, there are other European sides who can battle with the EPL in terms of earning money.
Today’s professional football teams earn revenue from sponsors and broadcasting deals, ticket sales, social media and by winning silverware.
The Deloitte Money League is an accurate calculation done by the English multi-national service network. With that being said, let’s look at the 5 richest football clubs in 2022.
The richest football clubs in the world
Manchester City: €644.9m
Long have the days gone when Manchester City relied on their billionaire owners to be their biggest source of money. The reigning Premier League champions were the highest-earning side last season, generating as much as €644.9m!
This includes money made from commercial deals as well as bonuses from winning the Premier League and Carabao Cup last season. City also reached the Champions League Final, which got them €60m+!
That helped the Citizens become the club with the highest revenue in the world, as they earned more money than rivals Manchester United in a year for the first time in history!
Real Madrid: €640.7m
Real Madrid’s financials took a major hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic as it forced them to stop the lavish spending on new transfers and focus on saving. Things got really bad last year, forcing Los Blancos to ask their squad to take a 10% pay cut as the club wasn’t able to fully pay their employees.
However, Real have made a strong return financially. Last season, they earned €640m+ – mostly because they only purchased David Alaba who was a free agent in the summer.
Strong returns from commercial sponsors and other deals mean Madrid can now spend lavishly on Kylian Mbappe or other summer targets knowing their financials are in a very good state again.
Bayern Munich: €611.4m
Bayern Munich are not often the ones to feature in such “financial” calculations as they’re a club that is all business on the pitch. However, as they saw the European giants fall down in this category, Bayern were able to solidify their positions as one of the world’s highest-earning clubs.
They had a yearly revenue of €611.4m, making them the third-highest earner in the world. Their solid relations with key investors and ability to make money from winning German competitions have seen Bayern boast enviable numbers in the money league.
In fact, they were the only European champion side in the 2020/21 season to actually make a profit, around €1.8m after taxes.
FC Barcelona: €582.1m
FC Barcelona has had a nightmare with finances the last few years. Team president Joan Laporta revealed last year that the club is over €1bn in debt! The financial issues forced them to allow Lionel Messi to leave and join PSG.
Despite their issues, Barça are still generating huge money because of its name and brand. As per Deloitte’s Football League, they earned €582.1m in revenue last season – the fourth-highest for any European club. Their revenue dropped from the €715m they made in 2020, mostly because of the Covid-19 factor.
They received only €30m (instead of €55m) from shirt sponsors Rakuten last year, negatively impacting their finances. Despite their troubles, Barça still remain one of the highest-earning clubs in the world because of rich sponsors and revenue from other sources.
Manchester United: €558m
Like Barcelona, Manchester United are another European giant that suffered a dip in revenue because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the Red Devils weren’t helped by their inability to win any silverware for the 4th consecutive year last season.
United were knocked out of the Champions League group stages, causing them to earn less from the competition than expected. Moreover, the lack of fans in stadiums meant their matchday revenue was also impacted.
While United were able to make big signings in the likes of Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo last summer, their overall revenue for last season was €558m – a drop from €580m the season before. While it helps them stay among the top-5 highest-earners in the world, it’s still lower than what the United hierarchy would hope for.