A NON-STORY FOR LAZY JOURNALISTS AND IDIOTS

Last updated : 03 March 2004 By Editor
As United top the supposed “richest club” table again only an imbecile would think that it even matters. Given the figures arebased on turnover and profitability of the actual clubs themselves Chelsea’s Russian backing is rendered an irrelevance as is Real Madrid and Juventus’ owners’ respective financial power.

Meanwhile Leeds are included in the top 20 supposed “richest clubs” based on turnover and United are in 1st place, despite the fact corporate shareholders cream off a large portion of that money meaning it can never go into the football club.


From The Times:

Manchester United may have been gazumped by Chelsea over Arjen Robben, one of the leading young players in European football, but they are still streets ahead of their Barclaycard Premiership rivals in the money generation game.

The champions have retained their title of richest club in the world, nine places ahead of Chelsea, in the annual Deloitte Football Rich List, revealed exclusively in The Times today. It is the seventh successive season that United have topped the sport’s rich list, which uses turnover as the best measure of “financial muscle”.

The club’s income, based on the latest published accounts, for the 2002-03 season, was £167.4 million, compared with the £89 million reported by Chelsea during Ken Bates’s last season in charge.

United are £22 million ahead of their nearest competitor, Juventus, the Serie A champions last season, and £39.15 million ahead of Real Madrid, the club widely considered to be the most glamorous in Europe.

United also come out on top when compared with the biggest names in sport in the United States. The club eclipses even the New York Yankees baseball club, the richest in America and the franchise thought to be the most expensive to buy in world sport.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the National Football League team owned by Malcolm Glazer, are around two thirds the size of United, with revenues of £97.2 million.

United’s annual match-day income of £67.5 million is more than the total turnover of all but the top 14 rich-list clubs. However, the club’s advanced commercial approach — including a £303 million merchandising deal with Nike and a £36 million shirt sponsorship deal with Vodafone — ensures that they would also head the list on profitability alone.


From the BBC:

United's turnover of £175million in 2002/3 keeps them ahead of Italian giants Juventus and AC Milan, as well as Real Madrid, in the Deloitte and Touche study of revenue coming into clubs.

Liverpool, though, have fallen out of the top five from fifth place a year ago and are now in eighth overall with £104.4million, just behind Arsenal (£104.6million), whose position will be strengthened when they move to a new stadium in 2006.

Celtic make it into 18th place with an annual income of £60.8million but there is no place for Rangers who dropped out of the top 20 two years ago.

Despite their terrible financial problems, Leeds are rated among the top 20 clubs in the world in terms of income and are in 16th place with revenues of £64million during 2002/3.


FOOTBALL'S INCOME RICH LIST
1. Manchester United £167.83m
2. Juventus £145.75m
3. AC Milan £133.66m
4. Real Madrid £128.5m
5. Bayern Munich £108.6m
6. Inter Milan £108.4m
7. Arsenal £99.87m
8. Liverpool £99.74m
9. Newcastle United £92.73m
10. Chelsea £89.32m
11. AS Roma £88.39m
12. Borussia Dortmund £82.78m
13. Barcelona £82.38m
14. Schalke 04 £79.17m
15. Tottenham Hotspur £63.81m
16. Leeds United £61.41m
17. Lazio £59.34m
18. Celtic £58.07m
19. Olympique Lyonnais £56.27m
20. Valencia £53.73m