Staff Writer Isabel Moon-Parry explores the recent Deloitte Money League report that details record growth for European Football clubs.

On the morning of 23rd January 2025, the Deloitte Money League showing the revenues of the world’s football clubs was published. Now in its 28th edition, the consultancy firm’s annual publishing of revenue is one of the key moments of the year for those of us following football finance as we get a glimpse into how healthy the world’s sport truly is.

The Deloitte Money League tells us the top 20 highest revenue generating clubs globally for the 2023/24 season. And, this year a number of landmarks were reached both within the Men’s Money League table and the Women’s Money League table with both seeing record revenue being generated by its top clubs.

Men’s Football Continues to Grow

Cumulatively, this year’s 20 Money League clubs reported record revenues of €11.2bn (£9.4bn) in the 2023/24 season, which is an increase of 6% on revenue generated in the 2022/23 season. On average, the top 20 clubs earned around €560m which can be broken down into €244m commercial revenue, €213m from broadcasting revenue, and €103m coming from matchday revenue.

Some of the key pieces to note from Deloitte is that matchday revenue, that is ticket sales and money earned by the club from match going fans as well as food and drink bought at the stadium, was the fastest growing revenue stream rising by 11% on the previous year. 

Once again commercial revenue, that is money generated through sponsorship deals and merchandise sales, was the largest single share of generated revenue for the season standing at €4.9bn after achieving the top position during the 2022/23 season.

Broadcasting revenue for the 2023/24 season, which stands at €4.3bn, did not see an uptick according to Deloitte, this being due to the existing broadcasting deals for the ‘Big Five’ leagues in Europe remaining in place from the following season.

The lead partner in the Deloitte Sports Business Group, Tim Bridge, said about the commercial and broadcasting revenue, “While commercial revenue dominates the income of the top ten Money League clubs, broadcast income remains crucial for teams in the second half of the rankings.”

Of the 20 top clubs in Men’s football, the highest earning for the 2023/24 season was Real Madrid who broke records earning over €1bn, the first football club to ever do so. Renovation works to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu contributed to this increase, with matchday revenue for Real Madrid increasing by 103% to €248m from €122m in 2022/23.

Renovation works had an impact for more clubs than just Real Madrid however, indicating that if clubs do want to see both an immediate and long term increase in their revenue that stadium expansions are the way to go. Both Olympique Lyonnais and Liverpool saw an increase in matchday and commercial revenue following the completion of their respective stadium expansions.

Liverpool’s Anfield Road End expansion saw an additional 7,000 seats added which brought in a further €29m in matchday revenue compared to the previous season. This is even more impressive given that the expansion was not completed until November, over three months into the season.

Barcelona’s ongoing renovation works directly resulted in a decrease in the clubs revenue for the 2023/24 season with them earning €63m less in matchday revenue compared to the previous season. This is due to them playing at the Estadi de Montjuïc, which has a capacity of 55,000, while expansion work is carried out at the Camp Nou.

Deloitte also reported that there are now 300 sports ground renovations or new builds that will take begin and place throughout 2025. They also reported that around 50% of those stadiums will be in North America and Europe. These stadium renovations and builds are not exclusively limited to football it must be noted, however the vast majority of those in Europe are football stadiums.

On stadiums, Deloitte reported that the so-called “smart stadium” market is growing, having a market size of $8bn in 2024 which is set to rise to $38bn by 2033. A smart stadium is one which integrates advanced technologies into its design and fan experience.

The strength of the Premier League and its financial might continues to be proven with nine of the top 20 teams being English based sides. These clubs were: Manchester City (2nd), Manchester United (4th), Arsenal (7th), Liverpool (8th), Tottenham (9th), Chelsea (10th), Newcastle United (15th), West Ham United (17th), and Aston Villa (18th). Of the clubs ranked 21st to 30th in the list 5 of them were also English clubs, these being: Brighton & Hove Albion (21st), Crystal Palace (26th), Everton (27th), Fulham (28th), and Wolves (29th). Combined just under half of all clubs in the top 30 for revenue generated in 2023/24 were English clubs. This is despite some club, like Everton, Man City and Chelsea facing Financial Fair Play investigations.

Of the top 30 clubs, interestingly only one of them was not based in Europe. This was Brazil’s Flamengo. Based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s most widely supported club earned €198.2m in revenue. The club is by no means the most successful by trophies won in Brazil, but its support base may have had an impact on the large revenue the club generated. Deloitte did not release in depth details about the revenue of the clubs ranked 21-30.

Women’s Football Explodes in Revenue

The Women’s Money League table from Deloitte is now in its third year of creating a top 15 of the top revenue generating clubs in women’s football. It is important to note however, that Deloitte are unable to feature any National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) clubs in their rankings as well as Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and VfL Wolfsburg Women not having information published on their accounts.

The top 15 clubs in women’s football reported a combined €116.6m during 2023/24, which is a growth of 35% on the previous season. According to Deloitte, of this €116.6m, 66% of that revenue came from commercial deals which is consistent with the statistics from the Men’s league that commercial revenue continues to dominate football finance.

Attendances have also had an impact on this increase in football revenue in 2024, with clubs in England’s Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship reporting a cumulative over one million attendance. This figure is higher than established sports in England, rugby league and motorsport, and place it in the top five most highly attended sports.

The top revenue generating team for the 2023/24 was once again FC Barcelona Feminí, who had been top for the previous two seasons. The Catalonian side generated €17.9m for the season, an increase of 26% from 2022/23.

The second highest revenue generating side was Arsenal Women with €17.9m also generated and whose 64% increase in matchday revenue was made possible from the side playing home matches at the 60,704 seater Emirates Stadium. This total will almost certainly continue to increase in the next accounts as the club will play a total of 11 games at the Emirates in 2024/25 compared to six in total for the 2023/24 season.

As in the Men’s league tables, English clubs continue to dominate financially in football with eight of the top 15 clubs in the table being WSL sides. These were: Arsenal Women (2nd), Chelsea Women (3rd), Manchester United Women (4th), Manchester City Women (6th), Aston Villa Women (7th), Liverpool Women (9th), Tottenham Hotspur Women (11th), and Everton Women (12th).

This dominance by English sides was helped by the new Barclay’s WSL sponsorship, which stands at £15m per year and is more than double the previous contract.

Outside of the top 15 and outside of Europe, it is interesting to note that two Japanese clubs reported a higher revenue for 2023/24 than three WSL sides did. These clubs were Sanfrecce Hiroshima Regina and Omiya Ardija Ventus who reported €1.9m each.