Manchester City top Deloitte Money League for first time

London

MANCHESTER City have topped the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time as the world's highest revenue-generating club in a 2020-21 season affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previous leaders Barcelona dropped to fourth in the 25th edition of the table, the Spanish club's lowest position since 2013-14.

Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City, with revenues of 644.9 million euros (S$963.3 million), climbed 6 places.

Some of City's commercial deals - which account for nearly half of revenue - are a source of controversy, with a number key partners such as shirt and stadium sponsor Etihad having links to the club's owners.

The English Premier League (EPL) champions and current leaders are only the fourth club to top the Money League after Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Real Madrid (640.7 million euros) were second and Bayern Munich (611.4 million) third. Manchester United were fifth, their lowest to date, Paris St Germain sixth and Liverpool seventh.

European champions Chelsea, now up for sale and with sanctions imposed on their Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were eighth.

Eleven of the top 20 clubs were from the EPL, the highest proportion ever, with Wolverhampton Wanderers entering for the first time in 17th position.

"Premier League broadcast rights values are set to pull further away from the other 'big five' European leagues from the 2022-23 season with the rollover of existing domestic arrangements on the same terms and the total value of international rights reportedly set to increase by 30 per cent and exceed the value of domestic rights for the first time," said Dan Jones, head of Deloitte's Sports Business Group.

The Deloitte report added that "the impact of Covid-19 is stark" with the lack of fans in stadia causing the lowest match-day revenue in the 25 years of the publication.

"Broadcast revenue is at a record high as a result of deferrals in distributions related to the delayed 2019-20 season," the report said.

Money League clubs missed out on more than 2 billion euros of revenue from the middle of the 2019-20 season to the end of the 2020-21 season, taking revenue back to the levels of nearly 5 years ago.

"Looking ahead to the 2023 Money League covering the 2021-22 season, we expect revenue of Money League clubs to reach record levels, as they bounce back from the effects of the pandemic and push towards collective revenues of 10 billion euros," it added.

EPL broadcast rights values were meanwhile set to pull further away from the other "big five" European leagues from 2022-23.

For the first time ever all of the Money League clubs also have a women's team. REUTERS, AFP