Manchester United still reign supreme over English clubs with Sh82.5b earnings
Jeddah, Monday
Manchester United remain the top-ranked English club in terms of revenue generated but their 23-year dominance of Deloitte’s Football Money League could come under threat from Manchester City or Liverpool in next year’s table.
United’s earnings of £627.1million for 2018-19 puts them third overall in the table, behind Spanish giants Barcelona (£741.1m) and Real Madrid (£667.5m).
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Their closest Premier League rivals are City and Liverpool in sixth and seventh respectively, with the Pep Guardiola’s side just £88.9m behind.
United, who have been the highest-ranked English club since Deloitte first compiled the Money League survey based on the 1996-97 financial results, are forecasting reduced revenues of between £560-580m for 2019-20.
The club face the prospect of a second consecutive season without Champions League broadcast revenue.Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, believes a changing of the guard is possible.
‘United have been the top English club since we started the Money League but that could come under a bit of pressure when we do it in 2021,’ he told the PA news agency.
‘That will cover this season when Liverpool are having an tremendous season on the pitch, so we think there’s a possibility of United losing that number one position.
Recent Spanish Super Cup winners Real Madrid sit in second place with a value of £667.5m ‘Part of that will ride on how the rest of this season goes, if City or Liverpool go deep into the Champions League.
‘It is definitely a possibility that United will lose that place. Depending on where they are in that range of projected revenue (£560-580m), and if City and Liverpool do well in the Champions League, it could be very, very close.
‘If you think about where we were 10 years ago, the idea that City would overhaul United in financial terms would have seemed far-fetched.’
Deloitte recorded United’s revenue in 2008-09 as £278.5m, with City almost £200m behind them on £87m. At that point United were almost £100m ahead of Liverpool as well. -AFP
