The twenty highest revenue clubs had a record-breaking season in 2024/25 with an aggregated €12.4bn revenue, up by 11% from €11.2bn reported in 2023/24. To put in context, the twenty clubs now pocket a neat 32% share or one-third of the total European football market size!
Real Madrid continues to lead the revenue list while cross the €1bn mark for the second consecutive year growing by 11% to reach €1.16bn. FC Barcelona displayed a robust 27% growth mainly due to doubling its income from ticketing revenue stream and inched very close to the billion-euro figure. Another key growth statistics is that at least 5 clubs have crossed the €800mn mark, up from 2 clubs crossing the mark in 23/24.
While the clubs in the top 10 in the list remain unchanged, although the ranks altered, the next ten clubs saw the entry of VfB Stuttgart with a revenue of €296mn. In this blog, we deep dive in the revenue, wages and investment areas of the 30 highest revenue generating clubs, also can be called as the ‘money-league clubs’ who have indeed formed quite a league of their own.
Growth in Revenue
Post pandemic, the revenues aggregated by the group of twenty clubs have grown at 8% CAGR with ticketing or matchday revenue stream displaying the highest rate of growth at 15% CAGR followed by commercial revenue at 9%. Broadcast revenue grew at a very modest 4% CAGR partly held back by the slowdown in media rights value across all leagues with the exception of Premier League which incidentally grew in the overseas rights value.
Breaking down the aggregate of the twenty clubs into revenue share of each stream, commercial revenue continues to dominate contribution share while there is a steady increase in contribution through ticketing revenue stream.
- Commercial revenue stream generates 43% of the total.
- Broadcast revenue 38%.
- Matchday revenue stream 19%, up from 18% share a year ago.
The most interesting bit is ticketing revenue grew by 16% over 23/24 while commercial grew by 9%. In comparison, both matchday and commercial revenue streams had grown by almost 11% each in 23/24 over the 22/23 figures. This further underlines the aggressive effort undertaken to stadium ownership and redevelopment.
Layered Leagues Within
Even within the 30 highest revenue generating clubs, we can observe a three-layered stack in revenue terms. In 24/25:
- The top layer consisting of 10 clubs have displayed an average revenue of €837mn.
- The next layer consisting of clubs ranked between 11-20, report an average revenue of €404mn, less than half of the top layer.
- The third layer of clubs, ranked 21-30, display the lowest average revenue of €227mn, almost one-fourth of the top layer and half of second layer.
The top layer of clubs ranked 1-10 in total revenue have been consistently growing at a 4% CAGR in the last 7-years although post-pandemic, the growth has been almost double.
It’s Important to note here that the gap between each layer is increasing year-on-year. Between the top two layers, the gap is increasing at 3% CAGR while between the next two layers, the gap is increasing even faster, at 12% CAGR.
It won’t be a big surprise to state that 14 clubs have remained in top 20 constant in the last 5 years. Incidentally, 9 clubs out of these were a part of the erstwhile Super League!
Financial Sustainability Check
Wages to revenue (W/R) ratio is an established parameter to check the football club’s financial sustainability. An acceptable ratio, recommended by UEFA is 70% and most clubs and leagues are judged on that benchmark. The curious thing about the ratio is when revenues increase faster than the wages, the ratio would always tend to be on the better side.
Taking in account the data shared by clubs and reported in the Deloitte Football Money League for the last 4 seasons (post pandemic), it is easy to see the W/R ratio is in a much-balanced situation than ever before for the 20 highest revenue generating clubs. While the revenue has increased by 7% CAGR, wages in comparison have increased at a mere 1% CAGR. Therefore, in the 24/25 list:
- Although four clubs have W/R ratio greater than 70%, it is still less than 75%, which is more manageable.
- Average W/R ratio of the top 20 revenue generating clubs in 23/24 is 56% (except Vfb Stuttgart who data is not available). It a considerable decrease from 60% in 23/24.
- The most notable changes are of PSG, who have consistently decreased their W/R ratio from a high of 83% in 23/24 to 65% in 24/25 and Aston Villa, who has managed to reduce from 96% in 23/24 to 71% in 24/25.
Tight Grip of Private Capital
Private capital, both in terms of equity through established Private Equity (PE) firms as well as debt, has risen exponentially post pandemic. A lot of it has to do with the shutdown of ticketing or matchday revenue during the pandemic period while expenses remained. PE firms saw the opportunity and began grabbing opportunities. The top tier clubs in the ‘big five’ leagues were viewed upon as prime targets with an established brand, global fan following and lower risk of relegation making them the ideal clubs to invest, especially the highest revenue generating clubs.
The situation amongst these clubs is such that 53% or 16 of the top 30 clubs in 24/25 are backed by investors with a private equity (PE) connect. Here, a pattern emerges that clubs with PE investment are often seen to be part of the spawning multi-club ownership (MCO) structure in the football industry. In the 30 highest revenue generating clubs of 24/25, 10 such PE-backed clubs are also part of their MCO network. Some highlights of the connect amongst 24/25 money-league clubs are:
- 16 of the 30 clubs are backed with PE investment, rising from 14 in 23/24.
- 60% or 18 of the 30 clubs are part of the multi-club ownership (MCO) network.
- 10 PE-backed clubs are part of their MCO network.
- 16 of the 30 clubs are backed by US-based investment, either through PE or individual capacity.
In Conclusion
European football’s focus on revenue streams have shifted from broadcasting being the dominant growth driver to commercial and matchday revenue streams, which is consistent with the slowdown in media rights value. Clubs will have to focus more on diversifying commercial revenue further into sub-streams all the while look at strengthening their matchday revenue streams, either by redeveloping the stadium completely or partially.
