All 20 Premier League clubs destined for financial domination, new study predicts

LONDON, Jan. 19– England’s 20- team Premier League dominates world football, a league table of the sport’s top movers and shakers revealed on Thursday. The annual Deloitte table shows six of the world’s top teams are Premier League clubs, with Liverpool hailed as the biggest mover. The table also shows more than half of the top 20 are Premier League clubs.

LONDON, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) — England’s 20-team Premier League dominates world football, a league table of the sport’s top movers and shakers revealed on Thursday.

The annual Deloitte table shows six of the world’s top teams are Premier League clubs, with Liverpool hailed as the biggest mover. The Anfield outfit jumped four places to third, overtaking arch-rivals Manchester United, who are fourth.

The Deloitte Football Money League, its 26th edition, details an annual profile of the highest revenue generating clubs in world football. The table also shows more than half of the top 20 are Premier League clubs. The Deloitte report said it was only a matter of time before all Premier League sides are in the world’s top 30.

Manchester City top the table which shows the total revenue for the top 20 revenue generating clubs in 2021/22 was 9.2 billion euros (9.96 billion US dollars), an increase of 13 percent compared to 2020/21.

Deloitte said City retained their position at the top of the Money League, and for the second time, were the club to generate the highest revenue in world football.

“This caps off a rapid rise up the rankings, with the club having only broken into the top five for the first time in 2015/16. This growth has been fuelled by an increase in commercial revenue, up 65 million euros (70.35 million US dollars) to 373 million euros (403.68 million US dollars) in 2021/22, which is a new Premier League record,” the report added.

Liverpool rose from 7th to 3rd to achieve their highest position in Money League history, and in doing so overtook Manchester United for the first time, on the back of a run to the UEFA Champions League final in 2022. They were also only one of five clubs to report over 100 million euros (108.23 million US dollars) in matchday revenue, marking the first time the club had done so, as fans returned to football stadia in their masses.

Manchester City’s revenue was 731 million euros (791.15 million US dollars), runners-up Real Madrid generated 713.8 million euros (772.53 million US dollars), Liverpool 701.7 million euros (759.44 million US dollars), Manchester United 688.6 million euros (745.26 million US dollars) and fifth placed Paris Saint-Germain generated 654.2 million euros (708 million US dollars). Other clubs in the top 10 were Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.

The rest of the top 20 were Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, West Ham United, AC Milan, Leicester City, Leeds United, Everton and Newcastle United.

Deloitte said that the rise in revenue was driven by the return of fans after two COVID-hit seasons, with matchday revenue increasing. Five of the Premier League’s ‘big six’ reported increases of 15 percent or more, as new partnerships were entered into and non-matchday events such as concerts and stadium tours returned.

“The historic Money League powerhouses of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are yet to recover revenue to their pre-pandemic levels, with the clubs’ revenues down from 2018/19. Conversely, the chasing pack of Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea have outperformed their pre-pandemic levels,” revealed the report.

Looking to the future, the Deloitte report concluded that “in the short term, the revenue superiority of English clubs is unlikely to be challenged and one now has to question whether it will be long before we see all 20 Premier League clubs in the top 30. Among the ‘big five’ European leagues from which Money League clubs tend to hail, only the Premier League and La Liga commenced new broadcast rights cycles in 2022/23.”

“The Premier League saw the total value of its media rights increase, driven by demand from international broadcasters, which saw the value of international rights, an increase of 26 percent for the 2022/23 to 2024/25 cycle when compared to the 2019/20 to 2021/22 cycle.” Enditem