With annual revenues of £331.4m, United is the highest-placed domestic club in the Europe-wide Football Money League, compiled by the Manchester office of accountants and business advisers Deloitte.
The figure dwarfed City's income of £153.2m which, despite having grown year-on-year by £28m, saw it slip below Tottenham Hotspur and German side Schalke 04 in the rankings.
But the Blues are tipped to break into the top 10 next season, due to the lucrative sponsorship deal the club has signed with airline Etihad and the fact it competed in the Champions League this season.
United finished third in the overall table behind Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, which had revenues of £433m and £407m respectively.
Liverpool came ninth, with a 2010/11 turnover of £183.6m, with Arsenal fifth on £226.8m and Chelsea sixth with £225.6m.
The Red Devils' turnover grew year-on-year by £45m, driven by a series of lucrative sponsorship deals, which led to commercial revenues breaking the £100m barrier for the first time.
But the club was still unable to catch the Spanish sides, largely due to the fact they have the ability to negotiate their own television rights deals, while Premier League agreements are sold collectively.
In November, City announced record losses of £194.9m, due to the huge sums manager Roberto Mancini had spent in the transfer market.
Its turnover broke the £150m barrier for the first time, which saw it ranked 12th in the Football Money League.
Its mammoth sponsorship deal with Etihad, rumoured to be worth £35m a year, is also expected to help it climb the rankings next year.
The Etihad deal includes shirt sponsorship, stadium naming rights and sponsorship of a new sports and leisure complex being built in the shadows of the ground.
The combined revenues of all the top 20 clubs in the list topped £3.6bn during 2010/11.
Dan Jones, a partner in the Deloitte sports business group, said: "Continued growth of the top 20 clubs during 2010/11 emphasises the strength of football’s top clubs, especially in these tough economic times.
"Whilst revenue growth has slowed from eight per cent in 2009/10 to three per cent in 2010/11, their large and loyal supporter bases, ability to drive strong broadcast audiences and continuing attraction to corporate partners has made them relatively resilient to the economic downturn."
This is the European league table with 2010/11 revenue in £m
| Pos | Change | Club | Revenue 2010/11 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | = | Real Madrid | 479.5 |
| 2 | = | FC Barcelona | 450.7 |
| 3 | = | Manchester United | 367 |
| 4 | = | Bayern Munich | 321.4 |
| 5 | = | Arsenal | 251.1 |
| 6 | = | Chelsea | 249.8 |
| 7 | = | AC Milan | 235.1 |
| 8 | +1 | Internazionale | 211.4 |
| 9 | -1 | Liverpool | 203.3 |
| 10 | +6 | Schalke | 202.4 |
| 11 | +1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 181 |
| 12 | -1 | Manchester City | 169.6 |
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Grossly misleading headline MUEN..... perhaps decribing them as the highest earners in the UK would have been more closely related to the facts.... Buck your ideas up please
Grasping
At
Straws
Just goes to show what a brilliant business sense the Glazers have !.
"Not from Manchester", "bitters", "we're best", "no we are".
Yawning in readiness.
well thats a huge surprise to every football fan in the country, MEN tell us something we dont know!!!!
Before all you fans start to puff yourselves up and increase your swagger - remember where the money came from!
Well done City, thanks to a very dubious £400mill sponsorship deal between brothers to re-name a stadium they don’t own, you may well just break into the top 10 of Europe’s money League next season… and with your current wage bill being 131% of your total turnover, that leaves the club with a long-term problem – how do they raise the turnover to continue to feed the players their wages to keep the club where it currently is, when the stadium is very rarely filled at the prices which are currently charged…?
A clubs finances / resources are not what you’ve got in your bank account, but its turnover and these dubious rescue / sponsorship deals won’t last forever.
After £1bill spent, (inc contracts) you may well now be as successful as Portsmouth, but the fact remains that you cannot continue to spend beyond your means, and let’s see how many Aguero’s & Silva’s will be turning up then.
still 2nd in the league though behind man city
In real terms this year City will be 8th biggest in the world which is some achievement when you look back 10 years. The continued investment and infra-structure around the
club can only bode well for the future. in addition the appointment of a well respected high profile Chief Executive from Barcelona is an exciting development.
I cant see anyone toppling Barcelona or Real Madrid in turnover for a very long time.
Higher Revenue does not equate to ''richer''.
And City's is growing just fine. Will see another spurt once we are champions.
i suppose its the muen fault for publishing this.. you blues have some excuses..wonder what will be on here now for the comedy club.
Hahahahaha MUEN hahahahahaha $$$$$$ millions in debt, tick tock...
Ickle Citeh not even in the 'top ten'?... blame the referees.
Little club, big mouths, no leadership, no history of success.
Fantastic, we are lucky to have the greatest of clubs in Manchester thanks to the many loyal supporters that turn out wind or rain.
Not bad for a team that has ( according to some) been in decline, since the sheik stuck a pin on a map.
That's because we all manage to get to the match because we live in Manchester as where city fans live in Stockport they got snowed in last week and the Etihad all star stadium was empty!!
Who cares more money for the Glazers to cream off.
P.S.Team Investment Still in deficit from the Ronaldo sale.
MEN - I'm surprised you didn't refer to your article on the City pages
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_city/s/1484389_manchester-city-set-to-unveil-former-barca-ace-ferran-soriano
"But a man who oversaw Barca’s rise from the world’s 13th richest football club to become European champions and second only to Real Madrid in terms of revenue, has been eyeing a return to football."
So before any United 'fans' scoff at the position of City in relation to their debt strapped club, I suggest you read the article and weep :)
By "TOP" I assume that you mean third. Have you actually read the list that you are reporting on MEN?
More a 'revenue' list , than a rich list ...
we all know that the Sheikh probably carries enough cash in his wheelbarrow to buy all the clubs in that 'rich' list put together , including Real Madrid , who top it ....
but of course it's all about the continued growth , and profit margins of clubs , and although City are hovering just outside that top ten at the moment the club will only grow , no doubt about that ... although whether it will will choose to 'fleece' it's supporters , like some of the clubs in that list , remains to be seen!
Real and Barca will be difficult to top due to their ability to negotiate their own TV deal, any sensible football fan would know United would dwarf any deal done by Spain's big two due to sell on rights in India and the Far East
It's times like this when you need to look at history. More importantly, current history. Our revenue will grow purely on being in the champions league all be it at the first stage only. Will uniteds do the same? Also the new deal with Etihad will start next year and another year in the champions league will increase our revenue further. And in another article they are predicting that Liverpool will not be in the top ten next year due to the amount of money lost for not being in european competition. If you include Arsenal in that next year then this table is going to look a lot different in the coming years.
I love football, but Christ I hate football fans.
Surely these figures are purely academic, we all know United have got the biggest turnover in English football and yes the figures make it official but what is that worth if so little of it is being spent on team development and the future success of the club? For the fans it's not worth the paper it's written on .
Alternative headline -
MUEN shamelessly seek to impress knuckle dragging red readership by publishing a table with United near the top and City at the bottom.
Don't care, not interested - if this sells a few more copies of the Evening News to rags then good luck, let us Blues focus on the real league table, I think you'll find City are top of it.