The Deloitte Football Money League is a ranking of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

clubs by revenue generated from football operations. It is produced annually by the accountancy firm

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

and released in early February of each year, describing the season most recently finished.

Summary performance timeline

The following table shows the clubs who have appeared in the rankings since the 1996–97 season, sorted by average annual rank, and drawn from the annual lists below.

Rankings by season

2020–21

2019–20

2018–19

2017–18

2016–17

2015–16

2014–15

2013–14

2012–13

2011–12

For the fourth year running, the top 4 teams were

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

and

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

, with Real Madrid becoming the first team to generate over €500 million in revenue.

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

and Napoli continued their meteoric rises up the table.

2010–11

2009–10

2008–09

2007–08

2006–07

The total revenue of the 20 richest clubs in the footballing world was over a record €3.73 billion. No side could displace Real Madrid, who remain top of football's financial rankings for the third year running after seeing their revenues leap 20% to €351.8 million during the 2006–07 season.

displaced

in second place, the Spanish club moving down to third. Chelsea's revenue increase sees them return to the top five, into fourth place whilst

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

's move to the

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. It has a current seated capacity ...

transformed their revenues moving them up to fifth place. This marked the first time any country has had three clubs in the top five of the Money League. European champions

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

moved up to sixth place while runners-up

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

moved two places up to eighth. Italian champions Internazionale moved down two places to 9th while

moved up a spot to seventh.

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

' relegation into

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

saw them move nine places down to 12th place.

2005–06

The total revenue of the top 20 richest clubs in the world is now over €3.3 billion.

gained four places in the ranking for this year, making the two richest clubs both from Spain. England has the largest number of clubs in the list. A club from Portugal was added to the list for the first time. Portugal's Benfica is the third club from the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

among the top 20 in the world, after Spain's Real Madrid and Barcelona.

2004–05

In the rankings for the 2004–05 season,

longs run at the top. Three clubs that had appeared in the previous season's top twenty (

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, Rangers, and

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

) were replaced by

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

, Everton, and

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

2003–04

In the 2003–04 season, five clubs recorded revenues of over €200m with

once again being ranked as the club with the highest revenue in Europe.

2002–03

English clubs dominated the money league for the 2002–03 season, with five

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

clubs occupying spots in the top 10.

2001–02

2000–01

1999–2000

According to 30 June 2000 exchange rate (£1 = €1.581528)

1998–99

According to 30 June 1999 exchange rate (£1 = €1.523693)

1997–98

According to 30 June 1998 exchange rate (£1 = €1.535628)

1996–97

According to 30 June 1997 exchange rate (£1 = €1.481353)

Summary table: Number of times appearing in Top 10 and Top 20

Summary table 2000 to 2012: Some teams appearing in Top 10

Annual Review of Football Finance 2011

Record growth in Europe's top five leagues boosted revenue in the continent's football industry by 4 percent to an all-time high of 16.3 billion euros (£13.7 billion/$23.8 billion) in 2009-10. The "Big Five" had total revenue of 8.4 billion euros, a 5 percent increase over 2008-09, according to

. In addition to that a total of €754.1m was distributed to clubs participating in the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, with the two finalists,

and

, receiving the largest amounts. Barcelona's triumphant run to the title at Wembley in May earned them a total of €51m. Despite the loss, Manchester United got even more €53m.

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

: Champions League financial distribution – 2010–11.

References

Deloitte Football Money League 2022
(rankings for the 2020–21 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2019–20 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2018–19 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2017–18 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2016–17 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2015–16 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2014–15 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2013–14 season
PDFDeloitte Football Money League 2014
(rankings for the 2012–13 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2011–12 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2010–11 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2009–10 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2008–09 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2007–08 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2006–07 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2005–06 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2004–05 season
PDF
(rankings for the 2003–04 season
PDFThe Deloitte Football Rich List 2004
(rankings for the 2002–03 season
PDFThe Rich List 2001
(rankings for the 1999–00 season

External links

*{{Official website, http://www2.deloitte.com Association football rankings Association football records and statistics