The crisis does not yet affect football powerhouses

For the fourth consecutive year, the richest football club in Europe is Real Madrid (£290 million), which has surpassed English Manchester United (£258 million), according to Deloitte’s wealth research on the strongest European football clubs.

The authors of this research emphasize that Manchester would have remained in first place if the pound had remained strong as it was in 2007. After winning the English Premier League and the Champions League last year, Manchester United reported a remarkable 21% increase in earnings. This English club led the list for eight consecutive years until Real Madrid dethroned it. Although the reported growth of only four percent for the past season is much more modest than in previous years, the royal club from Madrid has doubled its revenue compared to 2002 and is now ahead of Manchester by £32.5 million. All clubs in the top-20 ranking come from the Old Continent: four clubs from Germany and Italy, and two from Spain and France.

Turkey has for the first time gained its first representative, Fenerbahçe, in the top-20 richest clubs since this list was compiled in the 1996/1997 season. Bayern Munich has thus returned to the top five richest after five years of absence, securing fourth place with a profit of £234 million. Although it did not compete in the Champions League last year, it found itself in fourth place because it became the sole owner of the prestigious Allianz Arena. Celtic, Valencia, and Werder Bremen have dropped off the richest list, while Stuttgart and Manchester City have returned. Although the total profit of all clubs on the list increased by six percent to €3 billion in 2007/2008, the authors of the list emphasize that the ranking is based on data prior to the onset of the global economic crisis. This means that the real effects of the global recession will not be seen until the 2009/2010 season. (T.Vi.)