MANCHESTER United have slipped from second to third place in the league of the world’s biggest revenue-generating football clubs.
Nine of the top 20 clubs across the globe named in the Annual Deloitte Football Money League are English, but there is no place in the top 30 for any of Yorkshire’s clubs.
The Old Trafford club was second last year, but has slipped down a place – replaced by Barcelona – as revenue dipped to £395.2m. Despite a £20m fall in its revenues, to £439m, Real Madrid remain in first place.
Manchester City, with revenue of £352.6m have consolidated sixth place with increases in their broadcast (£2.2m) and commercial (£6.2m) revenue streams. The club’s overall revenue increases are more moderate than in recent years.
Liverpool’s return to the Champions League in the 2014/15 seasons assisted in driving revenue growth across all revenue streams to £298.1m, putting them in ninth with their cross city rivals Everton (£125.6m) also able to do the same, resulting in the Toffees moving up two places in the Money League to 18th.
North East clubs Newcastle and Sunderland were ranked 17th and 25th respectively, but there was no place for any of Yorkshire’s football clubs.
It is the 19th edition of the report, produced by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, which ranks clubs based on the revenue they generate.
Dan Jones, partner at Deloitte’s Sports Business Group said: “The 2014/15 Money League has been another year of growth for the ‘big five’ European leagues. However, we have also seen a slowdown of growth from the top five clubs, with revenues growing by just 4% year on year, compared to 11% in the previous edition. It may be hard for new clubs to break into the top 10 in the short term, given the €43.3m revenue gap between 10th and 11th place.”
