03/03/2004. Once again Manchester United have come out on top of the list of the world's richest football clubs, based on last season's income.

The list, produced annually by accountants Deloitte, shows that United's income was £167.83 million last season.

That was more than £20 million ahead of second-placed Juventus, who earned £145.75 million.

A surprise is that Leeds United, facing financial melt-down, appear in 16th place on the list after earning £61.41 million. They feature based on income, although trading in their shares has been suspended, the threat of administration remains and their debts amount to an estimated £100 million. Leeds occupied 11th place on the previous year's list.

Premiership were well represented in the top 20.

Arsenal, who last month confirmed that funding was in place to enable construction of their new stadium at Ashburton Grove to proceed, were on the new list in as the seventh richest club. The new 60,000-seater stadium will significantly boost the Gunners' revenue when it opens – which is expected to be at the start of the 2006-07 season.

Arsenal earned £99.87 million last season, with Liverpool one place below them on £99.74 million. The Reds are also putting together plans for a new 60,000-seater stadium in Stanley Park, close to Anfield, to boost their income.

Like Arsenal, Liverpool are seeking to close the earnings gap between themselves and Manchester United – a gap that has grown dramatically in recent years as capacity at Old Trafford has increased to 67,000-plus. Highbury is restricted to just over 38,000; Anfield to around 45,000.

Meanwhile Newcastle United, with the second largest ground capacity in the Premiership (some 52,000) were ninth on the rich list with an income of £92.73 million.

Chelsea were in tenth on £89.32 million – but the new financial muscle of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is likely to be apparent when the next list is published.

Tottenham appear in 15th place with £63.81 million, and Scottish Premier League giants Celtic earned £58.07 million, placing them 18th.

Last season's Champions League winners, AC Milan, were the third richest club with an income of £133.66 million.

Real Madrid were in fourth place with £128.5 million.

The Top 20 on Deloitte's 'Rich List' were:

1. Manchester United £167,83m
2. Juventus £145.75m
3. AC Milan £133.66m
4. Real Madrid £128.5m
5. Bayern Munich £108.6m
6. Inter Milan £108.4m
7. Arsenal £99.87m
8. Liverpool £99.74m
9. Newcastle United £92.73m
10. Chelsea £89.32m
11. AS Roma £88.39m
12. Borussia Dortmund £82.78m
13. Barcelona £82.38m
14. Schalke 04 £79.17m
15. Tottenham Hotspur £63.81m
16. Leeds United £61.41m
17. Lazio £59.34m
18. Celtic £58.07m
19. Olympique Lyonnais £56.27m
20. Valencia £53.73m

Well there u go Scum fans that thought ure club wasnt that rich

H'way, 9th's alreet!

We have moved up the list we was 19th before:D :p

wow, thats an interesting article
nice to see the italian clubs dominating with 3 out of the top 6
although some of the english teams are a bit of a suprise

the weirdest teams on the list are Lyon and Schalke :|

the others I can understand where and how they earn money but Lyon and Schalke? :crazyboy:

The reason why there are some surprising clubs in the list, If I'm not wrong, it's because that list show the clubs with the biggest income.

Having a big income doesn't mean to be rich if you have a huge hole of debts, high wages, ...



.

True.

Originally posted by italianstyle87
wow, thats an interesting article
nice to see the italian clubs dominating with 3 out of the top 6
although some of the english teams are a bit of a suprise

It's a suprise to me that the Italian teams are high on the list considering alot of Italian teams have massive debts. Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs don't suprise me, they have always been high on the list in terms of income,although Arsenal have over taken us in recent years. Spurs have the highest ticket prices in England so it don't suprise me we have alot of income.

As panxoman said, that shows income and not how much the club has. Can't see how that shows the richest clubs in the World just highest earners, as you can see Leeds are on there, and they're £100m in debt...

u have to be corrected, the SMALL clubs in Italy are the ones that are suffering with financial probs..

obviously big teams like Milan, Juve and Inter dont encounter these

Originally posted by Shevchenko-[7]
u have to be corrected, the SMALL clubs in Italy are the ones that are suffering with financial probs..

obviously big teams like Milan, Juve and Inter dont encounter these
Lazion? Parma? They're quite big.

well.. yeah, but as you know, they are in financial difficulty :crazyboy:

but mostly to blame are their chairmen who dont organize their clubs well.. Fiorentina comes to mind

Originally posted by Shevchenko-[7]
the weirdest teams on the list are Lyon and Schalke :|

the others I can understand where and how they earn money but Lyon and Schalke? :crazyboy:
Schalke received €100M from an American company. That's why they were able to buy Ailton and Bordon.

Nice.:p

Why is Madrid in there? I thought they would have financial problems.

...the list of the world's richest football clubs, based on last season's income.

;)

Ah didn´t see that

Originally posted by Elber2k3
Why is Madrid in there? I thought they would have financial problems.

FOR THE 98754298752974295742975742987425987219861296598654 32986256294658642586246564259624865649842598642596 29546597624975642656429864296297696962198716297564 21974569762154976214965264197621976196597614398761 59764319649187659713697546197543697136598716359816 53981643596143975461439765987159614329569126435964 31 TIME THERE IS NO DEBT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F*CK, HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO REPEAT MYSELF?:kader:


ahhh, that felt good :hump:

english clubs are now racing ahead in many aspects.
$
cl
players
quality

Originally posted by Can't stop the rush...
FOR THE 98754298752974295742975742987425987219861296598654 32986256294658642586246564259624865649842598642596 29546597624975642656429864296297696962198716297564 21974569762154976214965264197621976196597614398761 59764319649187659713697546197543697136598716359816 53981643596143975461439765987159614329569126435964 31 TIME THERE IS NO DEBT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F*CK, HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO REPEAT MYSELF?:kader:


ahhh, that felt good :hump:

Just to piss you off. :D

How much debt? :crazyboy:

it surprise me how manchester united are so ******* useless in the transfer market because they dont want to spend anything and they have alot:kader:

Some clubs don't want to end like Lazio and many other Italian clubs. :rolleyes:

Yes Newcastle ahead of Chelski. It doesn't matter how much money your owner has because we still make more money. Yea I know it is because we have a bigger staduim but you have to take it anyway you can.

Manchester United are the richest sports franchise in the world. Second are the New York Yankees

Originally posted by Caponedawg
Manchester United are the richest sports franchise in the world. Second are the New York Yankees

The Washington Redskins are the richest American sports franchise and I believe they are the second richest in the world.

Yeh i saw that today. Man Utd richest sports club in the world then it Yankees.

Good to see Inter at 6th :rockman:

Originally posted by SB9Dragon
Good to see Inter at 6th :rockman:

that doesnt mean anything. its only income ;)

Originally posted by claupastore
that doesnt mean anything. its only income ;)

Theres always a Juve fan to be quick and take my posts in a wrong way:rolleyes:

I'm not dumb, I know that this is only income and nothing else, not real richness, not team rank, ok? Satisfied?

Originally posted by SB9Dragon
Theres always a Juve fan to be quick and take my posts in a wrong way:rolleyes:

then maybe you should consider to write what you mean ;)

I'm not dumb, I know that this is only income and nothing else, not real richness, not team rank, ok? Satisfied?

yes i am.
also with juventus, we are up there in second place, but this year looks like juve its not gonna make money like it has been doing for the past 7 years. thats why that list means nothing :)

Leeds that rich ? ........... thats hard to understand ... :confused:

Read it. Leeds are not rich, Leeds made that big of a profit. It's an INCOME table, not wealth. Do you really think that United would only have 165 million?

They got it from the sales of Ferdinand, Kewell and Keane.

Good to see Man Utd are top again.

i see, my bad, i didnt read what was written above it .. :)

No worries.

i think Arsenal may rise this season if they go far enough in the CL.
still a bit surprised to see Tottenham in there, tho. even if they have the most expensive tickets in england

Originally posted by USA Supporter
The Washington Redskins are the richest American sports franchise and I believe they are the second richest in the world.

no way man. Yanks are hella rich

How are Lazio on that list?

LOL.. I confused ur sig and ur actual post :hump:

Originally posted by Can't stop the rush...
FOR THE 98754298752974295742975742987425987219861296598654 32986256294658642586246564259624865649842598642596 29546597624975642656429864296297696962198716297564 21974569762154976214965264197621976196597614398761 59764319649187659713697546197543697136598716359816 53981643596143975461439765987159614329569126435964 31 TIME THERE IS NO DEBT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F*CK, HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO REPEAT MYSELF?:kader:


ahhh, that felt good :hump:


you have debt, like most spanish clubs.

You just keep thinking what you want to. It's your own little world in there.;)

Chelsea were in tenth on £89.32 million – but the new financial muscle of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is likely to be apparent when the next list is published.

lets see how high they move up at the end of this year

Real will never have debts because they are owned by the Royals who give them all the money they want, bastards:p

Originally posted by henry#14
i think Arsenal may rise this season if they go far enough in the CL.
still a bit surprised to see Tottenham in there, tho. even if they have the most expensive tickets in england

How can u be surprised?. We have always been richer than Arsenal, It's only due to Arsenal's success and a legion of new glory hunters that Arsenal have become richer.

I thought Chelski had the most expensive tickets...?

We do to my knowledge but remember our stadium is only 42,000 big, there is only so much you can do.

Next year we will climb that list, with the Abramovich take over, Champions League football, and shirt sales have been reportly on the up for Chelsea.

Originally posted by PhiLLer
Real will never have debts because they are owned by the Royals who give them all the money they want, bastards:p
Yeah Real as in debt until 2001 and then the Royal people or something bought their training ground to save the team from 135 million debt, and now EU investigating how much they paid.

The New York Yankees are second over all if you account all sports behind United !:rockman:

Chelsea will be moving up that list pretty quickly.

Chelsea's money mainly comes only from Roman.. Who owns the club.. So I wouldnt really call it income :rolleyes:

It's only income, not profit, and not wealth. So it really doens't mean much.

A club (like an individual) can have zero income but be rich. many multi-milionaires who own companies only pay them selves a small salary, but are still rich.

For example, Chelsea are incredibly rich, regardless of how much money they make. And in fact, even if Chelsea were poor, it doesn't matter, because its Roamn's money anyway, which is seperate.

And also, you can have very high income. But that doesn't matter if your expenses are even higher. The reason Italian clubs (at least the big ones) are so high up and dominate the top spots is becasue they can negotiate their own TV contracts independitley. But they don't make big profits, because they spend everything on crazy wages, and the goverment let them spread their debts out longer than other nations, over 10 years, so they just operate in debt, because they can, as they have 10 years to cover it.

It's an interesting list. But ultimetly a useless one.

Originally posted by Rob
We do to my knowledge but remember our stadium is only 42,000 big, there is only so much you can do.

No. Spurs ticket prices is £55 im sure Chelsea's isnt as much as that.