‘City? Really?’ - The biggest takeaways from Deloitte Money List

Paul Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 09:01 CDT
• 4 min read

The 2023 Annual Deloitte Money List has been released and it makes for depressing reading for anyone not watching the Premier League.

The EPL swept up 11 of the top 20 positions in this year’s list, showcasing their dominance once again as they threaten to leave the other leagues behind.

But what were other trends worth noting from the list? Let’s take a look.

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What we learned from the Deloitte Money List 2023

Revenue is back to pre-pandemic levels…

While clubs were massively concerned about their revenue streams in a covid world, the fact that the matchday experience has largely returned to normal has rebooted revenues back to where they were in 2019.

That year, the average revenue of a Top 20 placing team was just north of €450m and in 2022 the number was only slightly below that. Indeed, commercial revenue has increased to record levels in that time, further enforcing the value of football in the marketing eco-sphere.

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But Barcelona and Real Madrid remain behind

Staggeringly, Barcelona’s overall revenue is down over €200m from where it was pre-pandemic, while Real Madrid’s is also down, albeit at a modest €40m after they chose to drastically reduce their transfer expenditure for a period of two years.

This further highlights Barcelona’s precarious financial situation in general, and how the team of Lionel Messi may be facing a future of being an also-ran in the global stage if things do not change.

Manchester City are allegedly No.1 (again)

City surprisingly topped the list last year, and have remained in that position, but the manner in which they have done so remains rather dubious.

Their commercial revenue generation - at the end of a pandemic-hit season, no less - rose an improbable €65m to a total of €373m. It’s the highest ever in Money List history and it is almost entirely related to deals with partners and relationships of the club owners, Abu Dhabi. Almost every sponsor is connected to business deals concluded there and the fact they remain top tells us much over the effectiveness of Financial Fair Play.

Qualifying for UEFA Competition is vital for non-Premier League clubs

Premier League clubs who can rely on significant matchday revenue and know that they are guaranteed broadcast revenue that will outstrip most of, if not all, of their continental rivals, are always likely to threaten to be on this list.

Indeed the best way for another side to infiltrate this list is to go deep in a major European competition, preferably the Champions League.

Leeds United, for example, are able to earn revenue close to both Milan and Inter; were either of those two denied Champions League football they would almost certainly disappear from the list to be replaced by another English club.

Sometimes, that’s not even enough.

Villarreal are a provincial La Liga club but reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, and therefore generated a huge sum from that competition.

And yet they languish below Wolves, Crystal Palace and only just ahead of Southampton to remain inside the top 30. These Premier League clubs don’t have to be impressive commercially, nor do they need to derive a huge amount of matchday revenue. It is the golden goose of their domestic and international TV deals which continue to destroy the competition.

Indeed, Leicester City’s €177m of TV revenue generated from a season of Premier League and Europa League/Conference League action on its own, without even considering other revenue sources, would have positioned them in the top 30.

This, it is fair to say, not particularly good for anyone else.