Business website Forbes have dropped the list of the most valuable football Clubs.
And it’s on the rise due to the huge broadcasting Rights in Europe.
Despite the speed bump in European broadcasting revenue, the average soccer team is now worth $2.3 billion, a 5.1% increase from a year ago. The European teams have long been global brands that investors crave. Revenue for the 30 teams was an average of $397 million, or 3% higher than last year. But operating income averaged $36 million, up 57% from the previous year. One reason profitability increased was several European teams kept player wages about the same during the 2022-23 season as the prior year and a handful, like Manchester United, Inter Milan and Juventus, significantly reduced player expenses.
But being elite on the pitch will be even more rewarding beginning next year when the new Champions League format begins. The number of teams will increase from 32 to 36 and number of matches will expand from 125 to 189. As a result, UEFA has forecasted a one-third increase in television money.
England’s top tier league, which inked a new domestic television deal in December for 2025-26 through 2028-29 seasons for an average of $2.1 billion a year, will be raking in more than twice the amount in domestic broadcasting revenue as any other soccer league and nearly twice as much than number two, Spain’s La Liga, when international broadcast deals are included.
In essence, all of the European soccer leagues—with the exception of the Premier League—are taking, or thinking of taking, loans against future value. Italy’s Serie A has been thinking of a sale of a stake in its media rights to private equity investors since 2020. In 2022, France’s Ligue 1 sold 13% of its rights in a new subsidiary to CVC, which gave Ligue 1 a nice cash infusion in exchange for paying CVC dividends from broadcasting rights, sponsoring rights and other relevant commercial contracts. Last October, france scrapped its broadcasting rights because it did not get any offers that met the minimum prices for Ligue 1 from 2024 through 2029. In early 2022 La Liga did something similar, selling 8.2% to a commercial subsidiary CVC. Serie A was also thinking about selling its broadcasting rights to private equity but has apparently scrapped the idea.
The List.
- Real Madrid: $6.6 billion
- Manchester United: $6.55 billion
- Barcelona: $5.6 billion
- Liverpool: $5.37
- Manchester City: $5.1 billion
- Bayern Munich: $5 billion
- Paris Saint Germain: $4.4 billion
- Tottenham Hotspur: $3.2 billion
- Chelsea: $3.1 billion
- Arsenal: $2.6 billion
