The world’s top 20 richest football clubs have been revealed

Real Madrid. Image: Getty

Real Madrid is the world’s richest football club, raking in a record €750 million (AU$1.2 billion) in revenue in the 2017-18 season.

It was the first time a club made more than €700 million.

Fellow Spanish club Barcelona came second place with €690.4 million in revenue ($AU1.1 billion), according to the Deloitte Football Money League report for 2019.

The two Spanish clubs bumped Manchester United from top position to third. The English favourite made €666 million ($AU1.05 billion).

Bottoming out the top 20 list was West Ham United which fell three places and made €197.9 ($AU314.59 million).

Napoli, Southampton and Leicester all fell off the list, while Newcastle United, AC Milan and AS Roma made their rich-list debuts.

How are they making so much money?

The top 20 clubs made a record €8.3 billion ($AU13.19 billion) last season – that’s more than double what they made a decade ago.

And most of that (43 per cent) comes from broadcast revenue. Commercial revenue and matchday revenue make up 40 per cent and 17 per cent of the clubs’ revenues respectively, explained Deloitte.

“Nonetheless, a noticeable trend in this year’s edition has been the commercial growth achieved by Europe’s largest clubs, particularly for those in the ‘big five’ leagues with no new broadcast cycles commencing in 2017/18 (i.e. England, France, Italy and Spain),” the researchers continued.

However Real Madrid also had their third successive Champions League title to thank for their blockbuster revenue, as it triggered commercial improvement and lucrative sponsorship and merchandise deals.

“Real have financial security from long-term partnerships with adidas and Emirates, but the on and off-pitch impact from the sale of talismanic forward Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer of 2018 remains to be seen,” the researchers added.

Here’s the full list

1. Real Madrid €750.9m ($AU1.2 billion)

2. FC Barcelona €690.4m ($AU1.1 billion)

3. Manchester United €666m ($1.06 billion)

4. Bayern Munich €629.2m ($AU1.0 billion)

5. Manchester City €568.4m ($AU900 million)

6. Paris Saint-Germain €541.7m ($AU861 million)

7. Liverpool €513.7m ($AU817 million)

8. Chelsea €505.7m ($AU804 million)

9. Arsenal €439.2m ($AU698.2 million)

10. Tottenham Hotspur €428.3m ($AU680.9 million)

11. Juventus €394.9m ($AU627.8 million)

12. Borussia Dortmund €317.2m ($AU504.2 million)

13. Atletico de Madrid €304.4m ($AU483.9 million)

14. FC Internazionale Milano €280.8m ($AU446.4 million)

15. AS Roma €250m ($AU397.4 million)

16. Schalke 04 €243.8m ($AU387.6 million)

17. Everton €212.9m ($AU338.4 million)

18. AC Milan €207.7m ($AU330.2 million)

19. Newcastle United €201.5m ($AU320.31 million)

20. West Ham United €197.9m ($AU314.6 million)

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