Football Money League: Struggling United become second richest club

Real Madrid top list for the 10th season running.

LONDON: Manchester United became the world’s second highest-earning club last season despite a disastrous campaign on the pitch, financial consultants Deloitte revealed in their latest Football Money League published yesterday.

The 2013-14 season was United’s first since the retirement of legendary manager Alex Ferguson and saw them slump to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League, with Ferguson’s successor David Moyes losing his job.

It meant United missed out on a place in the Champions League, but revenues of €518 million saw them climb to second behind Real Madrid in the list of world football’s top-earning clubs.

With revenues of €549.5 million, Real Madrid topped the chart for the 10th season running, after a year in which they claimed the La Decima.



The club witnessed revenue growth of €30.6 million, due to increases of €15.9 million in broadcast revenue and €19.9 million in commercial revenue. The other clubs in the top 10 were Bayern Munich, Barcelona, who slipped from second place to fourth, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Juventus.

Overall, revenue for the top 20 highest-earning clubs reached €6.2 billion, which represented a 14% rise on the previous year.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.

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