Manchester United tipped to overtake Real Madrid at top of money league
• United reap commercial growth despite last season’s dip
• Club jump two places to second in Deloitte Money League
• ‘Commercial revenue has grown 83% in the last three years’
• Match report: QPR 0-2 Manchester United
A return to Champions League football could enable Louis van Gaal's Manchester United to overhaul Real Madrid as the highest earning club in world football.
Last season may have been disastrous on the pitch for Manchester United but off it the club have reaped the benefits of huge commercial growth to narrow the gap to Real Madrid in the battle to be the world’s highest-earning club.
According to this year’s Deloitte Money League, which uses publicly available accounts to rank the revenues of the biggest clubs, United jumped two places from fourth to second with revenues of £433.2m. Their growth was partly fuelled by their commercial strategy of selling regional sponsorship categories around the world but also by the Premier League’s broadcasting deals that bring in £5.5bn over three years.
“Despite a poor on-pitch season in 2013-14, United’s commercial strategy of securing global and regional partners is delivering substantial growth. Commercial revenue has grown 83% in the last three years,” said Austin Houlihan, a senior manager at Deloitte. “Thanks to the latest Premier League media deals, broadcast revenue also increased 34% to £135.8m. Their absence this season from European competition will be felt in next year’s Money League position, but if they can return to the Champions League in 2015-16 there is a strong possibility they could be top in two years’ time.”
While their absence from European competition this season will dent revenues in next year’s list, a return to Champions League football combined with the impact of a new £750m, 10-year deal with Adidas will help boost revenues further and could enable them to overhaul Real as the highest earners in world football.
The United model, minted by the chief executive, Ed Woodward, of selling regional sponsorships in a range of categories, is now being copied by other clubs but they have some way to go to catch up.
The huge growth in broadcasting income and the relatively equitable way in which it is shared between the 20 clubs meant that half of the places in the Money League top 40 were taken up by clubs from the top division in England. Newcastle United and Everton are new entries in the top 20, joining the six clubs – United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur – on last year’s list.
“The Premier League’s new broadcast deals have translated into big revenue increases across the English top flight. In fact, every Premier League club reported record revenues in 2013-14. Between them, the eight English clubs in our top 20 achieved total broadcast revenues of £0.9bn,” said Houlihan. “That all the clubs in the Premier League are in the top 40 is testament to the huge appeal of the league globally and also the equality of the distributions the clubs enjoy relative to their European counterparts.”
Broadcasting revenue, which along with commercial income is becoming disproportionately important in relation to gate receipts, is likely to rise further for Premier League clubs when the results of the ongoing auction for live rights are announced next month. BT Sport and Sky are going head to head for the rights and once overseas sales, highlights and clips packages are taken into account, the total could top £7bn over three years.
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte said that the gap between the haves and have-nots in European football would get ever wider, with the “big five” leagues continuing to grow faster than their rivals.
“Although only Manchester United and Real Madrid have gone past the €500m [£418m] revenue marker so far, we predict that all of the top five clubs may reach that point by next year,” said Jones. “Commercial and broadcast revenues are now more important than ever to clubs to enable them to compete financially and put the best talent on the pitch. This has led to further dominance from the ‘big five’ European leagues this year, with just Galatasaray making it in from outside of those leagues.”
