United lead clubs in European ‘enterprise elite’

THE English Premier League’s £1.8bn a year broadcast deal until 2019 has projected three of the North West’s football clubs into the top five of a new “Enterprise Value” table for Europe.

Leading the way alongside Spanish giants Real Madrid are Manchester United with a top-end value of £2.27bn.

The statistics are revealed in KPMG’s first ever report ‘Football club’s valuation: The European elite’, the author of which is the professional services giant’s global head of sports Andrea Sartori.

The Red Devils’ derby rivals Manchester City lie sixth with a value of £1.3bn, behind fifth-placed London club Arsenal  (£1.32bn). Liverpool are eighth (£1.02bn) a place below Chelsea (£1.17bn).

Everton are 16th with a valuation of £366.5m four places below Tottenham Hotspur (£634.2m).

Sartori’s findings say the three highest valued clubs – Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona – represent about a third of the cumulative value of all 32 on the list.

By city, Manchester has the highest enterprise value of £4.6bn.

The report has been released in advance of Saturday’s Champions League final clash featuring Real and city rivals Atlético Madrid.

Sartori said: “Our analysis of Europe’s 32 leading football clubs highlights the changing economic landscape of football.

“While football clubs are among some of the world’s most instantly recognised brands, with truly global fan bases, their Enterprise Value when measured in a similar way to any other business, is relatively small.

“Thanks to the deal signed by the English Premier League at the beginning of 2015 the difference in terms of broadcasting revenues among the leading European leagues and the Premier League has widened significantly, despite the booming price of domestic broadcasting rights across other parts of Europe.”

 

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