Barça tops Deloitte’s Football Money League for the first time

For the first time ever, FC Barcelona sits atop the ‘Football Money League’ produced every year by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group in the UK which lists the highest earning football clubs worldwide. The club leads the ranking for the 2018/19 season after breaking the 800 million euro barrier, and finishes ahead of Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, who make up the rest of the Top 5. 

This 23^rd edition of the highly renowned league, which lists the twenty football clubs that generated the most revenue in the world, was published today by Deloitte. 

Deloitte notes that FC Barcelona, which finished second last year, has gone from 690.4 million euros in the 2017/18 season to 840.8 million in 2018/19 (in accordance with the methodology that the company uses to calculate its figures), and attributes this rise of 150.4 million to the Club’s change of policy regarding certain operations, particularly taking over management of its own commercial licenses via the Barça Licensing & Merchandising (BLM) company that was set up for this purpose in July 2018. “Recognising the power of its name, the Club has acquired control of its merchandising and commercial licenses, rather than entrusting them to third party operations”, states Deloitte in its report. 

It adds that “Barça is a clear example of a club that adapts to an evolving market, reducing its dependence on revenue derived from TV rights and putting the focus on revenue that it is able to control directly. The club’s commercial operations have generated revenue of 383.5 million, a higher figure than the total revenue of the club in twelfth place in the ranking” (Borussia Dortmund). 

“With forecasts of future growth of 30 million euros in income from commercial activities, and with total revenue of 880 million euros budgeted for the 2019/20 season, we expect Barça to top the table once again next year. The club is well poised to become the first to break the billion euro barrier in the Money League in the coming years.”

Deloitte’s Football Money League methodology 

The figures Deloitte uses to produce its ranking are taken from the annual accounts published by the different clubs, but it is important to note that it does not include amounts relating to transfer fees or extraordinary payments. That explains the disparity between the Deloitte figure of 840.8 million and the amount of 990 million that Barça included in its own financial statement.