Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid and the clubs in the most debt
Karan Tejwani
- Updated: 2 May 2022 15:33 BST
- 3 min read
Several clubs across Europe have been in a dire financial situation in recent times, and that trouble has been added to by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reduced a key source of income in ticket receipts.
In a thread released by Swiss Ramble on Twitter about the 12 European Super League-founding clubs’ financial situation over the last two years, the clubs’ debt figures were made evident.
Chelsea have the most debt out of the 12 clubs, with £1.7 billion, most of which (£1.5 billion), is owed to Roman Abrahmovich, who is set to end his ownership of his club soon.
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The rest of that debt is either owed in transfer fees or other factors, which will likely be taken up by the new owners of the club when they arrive.
The club with the second-highest debt out of the 12 clubs is Tottenham, who owe a total of £1.1 billion, which is mostly created by the cost of building their new stadium.
Their Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened in 2019 after years of planning and loan approvals, and that cost them plenty, which they will have to repay.
Third on that list is Barcelona, whose financial issues have been well-documented in recent years, and unlike the two English clubs above them, a lot of their debt is internal.
The club have a total debt of £1 billion, of which £213 million is owed to staff in delayed salaries.
If we add other debt (staff, tax, suppliers & other creditors) to financial debt and transfer debt, the total debt is a staggering £8.6 bln. Highest are #CFC £1.7 bln (mostly owed to Roman), #THFC £1.1 bln (new stadium) and #FCBarcelona £1.0 bln (including £213m salaries). pic.twitter.com/EFYFSQqlFk
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) May 2, 2022
All of this has led to the 12 clubs reducing their transfer spend in 2021, in order to make up for the losses incurred – transfer spend for the dozen fell from £2.2 billion to £1.3 billion between 2020 and 2021.
The clubs with the lowest debt out of the 12 are Milan (£253 million), Manchester City (£329 million) and Liverpool (£371 million).
Some other notable numbers are Manchester United (£741 million), largely created by the Glazer family and Real Madrid (£789 million), who are undergoing a stadium redevelopment of their own.
