Football has always been a high-revenue sport. From 1888 to 2023, the popularity of football has grown substantially, as has the revenue generated by clubs. Footballers around the world are amongst the richest athletes in all sports. Today we’ll see the top 10 richest football clubs in the world –
1. Manchester City
The Deloitte Money League, which was released on January 19, 2023, indicated that Manchester City is the richest football team in the world. The Premier League team experienced an increase in total revenue from €644.9 million in 2020–21 to €731 million in 2021–22. Manchester City was the richest football club last year as well. They were the winners of the English Premier League, which led to their rising popularity in the previous year.
2. Real Madrid
Real Madrid, which earned €713.8 million in 2021–22, is listed behind Manchester City for the second year in a row. Their revenue was €318 million from commercial deals, €308 million from broadcast, and €88 million from matchday revenue. Real Madrid has always been the most popular Spanish club for a long time now.
3. Liverpool
With earnings of €701.7 million, Liverpool surpassed very popular teams like Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain to take third position on the list.
In 2022, Liverpool lost to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final. They earned €275 million from commercial agreements, €314 million from TV rights, and €112 million in matchday revenue, and it was the highest earning for Liverpool given the rise in popularity for the club.
4. Manchester United
Manchester United comes fourth on our list of the wealthiest football clubs in the world thanks to its €688.6 million profit in 2021–2022, a 23% increase over the €558 million it earned the year prior.
Revenue breakdown: €309 million was generated via commercial agreements, €254 million by transmission, and €126 million by matchday.
5. Paris Saint-Germain
PSG earned a profit of €654.2 million in 2021-2022, which accounts for 18% growth from the last year. Earning Breakdown for PSG: €383 million from commercial revenues, €139 million from broadcast, and €132 million from matchday. PSG won the Ligue 1, which helped them gain this substantial revenue. Paris Saint-Germain has a very popular trio in Messi, Neymar, and Mbappé.
6. Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich made a total of €653.6 million in revenue, which saw a 7% growth as compared to the €611.4 million made in 2021. They surprisingly rank 6th in our list considering teams like Barcelona are not featured yet.
7. Barcelona
Barcelona dropped from 4th position in last year to 7th this year. They suffered huge losses this year which resulted to this drop in rankings. Barcelona earned €638.2m in 2022, an increase of 10% from the €582.1m earned the year before. They must the hoping for a strong comeback this year.
Other remaining teams which managed to attain a spot in top 20 rankings –
| 8 | Chelsea | £481.3m |
| 9 | Tottenham | £442.8m |
| 10 | Arsenal | £367.1m |
| 11 | Juventus | £339.3m |
| 12 | Atletico Madrid | £333.6m |
| 13 | Borussia Dortmund | £302.2m |
| 14 | Inter | £261.2m |
| 15 | West Ham | £255.1m |
| 16 | AC Milan | £224.4m |
| 17 | Leicester City | £213.6m |
| 18 | Leeds United | £189.2 |
| 19 | Everton | £181m |
| 20 | Newcastle United | £179.8m |