Deloitte Football Rich List Money League

By dixon9
February 13 2009

That time of the year again! Deloitte have released their respected version of which clubs have the biggest financial clout in European football – Chelsea finish a credible 5th place and the second highest English club behind Manchester United. Seven Barclays Premier League clubs make the top twenty list despite the poor performance of the pound against the euro.

It should be noted from the outset that the Rich List does not include transfer fees, VAT and focuses on turnover and revenue streams only. Debt is not factored in, so outstanding loans for stadiums for example or some interest payments on leverage buy-outs are not included.
Top dogs
Real Madrid finish as top dog with 365.8m euros (£289.6m) although just how reliable their balance sheets are is another matter. When the Spanish club released its accounts there was more than a bit of controversy during the shareholders meeting with some questioning, for example, how come they needed to borrow 90m euros when the accounts said there was 90m in the cash box at the same time! Anyway…
Manchester United finish in 2^nd place with 324.8m euros (£257.1m) and have a Nike licensing agreement which should add on to the Deloitte figure taking their total gross turnover to over the £300 million mark!
Chelsea are 5th with 268.9m euros (£212.9m) with a gross of £248.
Chelsea are placed behind Barcelona and Bayern Munich but in front of Arsenal again who sit sixth in the European table with 264.4m euros (£209.3 million). Chelsea have increased revenue by 12 % from 2007.
The rest
Liverpool, despite boardroom wranglings have increased their turnover up from £134 million in 2007 to 210.9m euros (£167 million) for 2008. Fenerbache and Stuttgart nudge in for the first time and the three other English clubs in the list are Spurs in 14^th, Newcastle 17th and Manchester City in 20th who increased their turnover by 43% to £82.3 million.
14 of the top twenty clubs participated in the Champions League which tells its own story.
The Top 10 is as follows pop-pickers! :

“Lost in translation” exchange rate effect
Deloitte described this years report as “Lost in translation” as results are a bit skewed or distorted due to the eventual fall of the pound against the Euro – the currency used by Deloitte to measure financial performance.
The exchange rate was taken from 30^th June 2008 when it was 15% weaker compared to its position on the 30^th June 2007 from when revenue streams are measured from.
Yeah but so what? Well, with a stable excahnge rate, this means that Manchester United would have been placed in first position on this years list with 381.9m euros, Chelsea 3^rd with 316m euros (ahead of Barcelona) and Arsenal in 4^th place with 310.9m euros – in other words, the top 4 places would have been occupied by three English Premier League clubs.
It should be obvious that the bigger the capacity of the stadium the greater the possibility of maximising matchday revenue - although we haven’t done too badly in 4^th place considering the top 6 clubs all have notably superior capacities.
So how is it that we have better revenue in this category than Barcelona and Bayern Munich for example?
Ticket prices must be the reason but it is interesting that when you look at the proportion compared to the 60,000 Emirates Stadium, we still hold up much better than you would have thought. This can’t be due to our corporates (you would have thought Arsenal would be at least as good if not better than us in that respect) – maybe Chelsea fans drink more beer in the ground?!
Nevertheless, a matchday revenue of 119.5m euros (£94.6m) represents 45 per cent of Arsenal’s total turnover and this is no doubt why Kenyon is eyeing the possibility of increasing capacity at the Bridge or moving (I personally hope the latter does not happen).
Liverpool’s matchday revenue is even less than Spurs who do not figure in the top 10 list. The scouser’s patience is beginning to wane with Hicks and Gilet who promised that the move to Stanley Park would be a priority.
Despite an overall superior television deal for the Premier League than other European leagues, the bigger clubs on the continent prefer to negotiate their own contracts and this is why we fall out of the top 3 placings in this category. So much for the Corinthian spirit on the continent (although Italian clubs will now revert back to a collective deal).
The Premier League TV contract has just been negotiated for 3 years from the 2010/11 season and clubs will enjoy a 4% increase despite the credit crunch.
God knows what Bayern Munich have been up to but they are doing it very well – them topping this category surprises me.
Very pleasing that we are right up there and ahead of Liverpool and Arsenal in this respect (Arsenal are actually £17m behind us).
Servicing debt
Manchester United paid off £42 million of the £81 million due in interest payments last season. They have a “£515 million "senior" loan repayable at a rate pegged to the inter-bank rate, and a payment-in-kind facility provided by a consortium of hedge-funds that is effectively an equity stake in the club” according to the Telegraph.
“Interest on this PIK loan, payable at 14.25 per cent, is rolled up and added to the loan each year, so last year's declared figure of £152 million can be expected to grow to about £173 million. As a result the club's total debts of £667 million can be expected to rise.”
Hmmm….
Liverpool can boast a 25% increase in turnover and this will be vital when they probably have to sell the club in the summer or justify that they can continue to pay off interest to service their £350 million acquisition loan with the government owned RBS (doubtful?). What all this means for Rafael Benitez's transfer budget remains to be seen.
Real Madrid and Ronaldo
Real Madrid have asked Banco Santander for a £60 million loan to help pay a world-record transfer fee for Cristiano Ronaldo according to the media but would have to find funds for the remainder of the £100 million fee themselves. Apparently, the Spanish side's credit limit cannot exceed 20 per cent of their gate receipts.
And…that’s it!

Deloitte Football Rich List Money League

14 of the top twenty clubs participated in the Champions League which tells its own story.

“Lost in translation” exchange rate effect

Deloitte described this years report as “Lost in translation” as results are a bit skewed or distorted due to the eventual fall of the pound against the Euro – the currency used by Deloitte to measure financial performance.

It should be obvious that the bigger the capacity of the stadium the greater the possibility of maximising matchday revenue - although we haven’t done too badly in 4th place considering the top 6 clubs all have notably superior capacities.

So how is it that we have better revenue in this category than Barcelona and Bayern Munich for example?

Liverpool’s matchday revenue is even less than Spurs who do not figure in the top 10 list. The scouser’s patience is beginning to wane with Hicks and Gilet who promised that the move to Stanley Park would be a priority.

The Premier League TV contract has just been negotiated for 3 years from the 2010/11 season and clubs will enjoy a 4% increase despite the credit crunch.

God knows what Bayern Munich have been up to but they are doing it very well – them topping this category surprises me.

Very pleasing that we are right up there and ahead of Liverpool and Arsenal in this respect (Arsenal are actually £17m behind us).

Servicing debt

“Interest on this PIK loan, payable at 14.25 per cent, is rolled up and added to the loan each year, so last year's declared figure of £152 million can be expected to grow to about £173 million. As a result the club's total debts of £667 million can be expected to rise.”

Hmmm….

Real Madrid and Ronaldo

And…that’s it!

It should be obvious that the bigger the capacity of the stadium the greater the possibility of maximising matchday revenue - although we haven’t done too badly in 4^th place considering the top 6 clubs all have notably superior capacities.