United no longer the worlds richest club

**joeSoap** · 16/02/2006, 10:24 AM

MANCHESTER UNITED have fallen off No 1 position in the world's financial football league for the first time in nine seasons, according to an authoritative annual rich list published today.

The eight-times Premiership champions were overtaken last season in the revenue stakes by Real Madrid, the Spanish club to whom they sold David Beckham, the England captain and the world's most marketable player, in 2003.

The Deloitte Football Money League shows that Real Madrid were the richest club in the world in 2004-05, with turnover of �186million compared with United's �166.4m.

United topped the list of the world's top 20 clubs by revenue for the previous eight editions of the report but were leapfrogged by their Spanish rivals, who managed to increase revenues from sources such as sponsorship and merchandising by 17 per cent year on year.

The changing of the guard is not expected to stop there. Deloitte predicts that Chelsea, Arsenal, Juventus and Barcelona will challenge for a top-three position in the next few seasons. Chelsea dropped one place from fourth to fifth with turnover of �149.1m and Arsenal fell from sixth to 10th with turnover of �115.7m. Both clubs should improve on those figures this season.

Chelsea will benefit from �11m a year coming in from Samsung, their new shirt sponsor, and �10m a year from Adidas for a new kit deal from next season. Arsenal will earn substantially more at the gate from next season, when they move from Highbury to the 60,000-seat stadium in Ashburton Grove. Match-day turnover alone is expected to generate �34m extra.

Real's rise to the top of the financial pile happened even though ticket prices in Spain are substantially lower than in England.

"The club's annual revenue has doubled during the past five seasons, primarily driven by commercial revenue streams," Dan Jones, a partner at Deloitte's sports business group, said. "Growth for most other clubs in the table has tended to come more from broadcasting and match-day income. Here, Real Madrid have broken the mould."

Real have generated commercial revenues on the back of big-name players such as Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Robinho, who are part of a wider strategic plan to sell the football brand around the world through shirt sales and licensing deals. The Spanish club's commercial revenues of �83.7m eclipsed United's by �35m, showing how far their English rivals must catch up in global marketing terms, despite having a bigger worldwide fan base.

United's sponsorship revenues may increase if they can improve on the �9m-a-year shirt deal with Vodafone that ends this summer.

Deloitte predicts that Chelsea, Arsenal, Juventus and Barcelona will challenge for the top-three.

There is some concern that the Glazer family, who bought United last summer in a highly leveraged deal that demands revenue increases, will be tempted to hike ticket prices. "United already have more expensive tickets than Real," Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for sport, said. "Pricing ordinary fans out of the game is the last thing United need."

English season tickets cost three times as much as in Spain and six times as much as in Italy, according to Foster's research.

The Deloitte report puts English clubs in eight out of the top 20 positions, more than any other country. After United and Chelsea, the next wealthiest are Liverpool in eighth place on �122.4m, Arsenal and Newcastle United in 12th, Tottenham Hotspur in 13th, Manchester City in 17th and Everton in 18th.

The report highlights the commercial importance for the top clubs of the Champions League. Fourteen of the top 20 clubs, whose collective revenues exceeded �2billion for the first time, played in the group stage. No club outside Europe make the top 20.

(� The Times, London)