MANCHESTER UNITED are on course for their lowest-ever position in football’s rich list as rivals continue to catch the ailing English giants.
Deloitte’s Football Money League has the Red Devils stuck in third place for their latest ranking as Barcelona claim top spot for the first time ever.
The figures for the 2018/19 season were released on Tuesday with the Catalans earning £741million of revenue, an increase of £130m on the previous year.
Real Madrid come in at £667m, barely rising by £2m from 2017/18, before United’s £627m.
Making up the top five are Bayern Munich (£581m) and Paris Saint-Germain (£560.5m) – but the Premier League dominates once again with eight clubs in the top 20.
Liverpool benefit from their new £80m-a-year kit deal with Nike to sit seventh in a year that also contains their Champions League triumph.
Around £67m was scooped by the Reds as they won in Madrid and, with Jurgen Klopp showing little sign of slowing down, they can expect to make a healthy profit from their success.
Tottenham are now the highest earning London team, ousting Deloitte mainstays Chelsea by upping their revenue by £80m off the back of their European run and new stadium.
Capital rivals Arsenal fall out of the top ten as they barely grew their income at all.
And French side Lyon shot into 17th place while Newcastle and AC Milan, clubs with huge potential they are struggling to meet, drop out of the 20 highest earners.
On the face of it, Manchester United look to be in a rosy position.
In third place with a revenue stream £38m richer than it was the year before, the Old Trafford boardroom may insist it is confident of the future.
Yet Deloitte forecast their 2019/20 income to come in between £560m and £580m, which would mean a finish between fifth and seventh on current trends.
That would mark a lowest-ever position for the Old Trafford outfit since the Money League was conceived in the late 1990s.
United have previously fallen to fourth but always bounced back – a repeat of which appears increasingly difficult.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer failed to extend his impressive start to life in the dugout as far as qualifying for the Champions League is concerned and a place in this year’s top four also appears far off.
As seen with Arsenal, two consecutive seasons away from Europe’s elite club competition has major long-term impacts.
Also of significance to English football is the notion that that money has to go somewhere – with Liverpool and Manchester City on a rapid ascent to catch their northern neighbours.
Overall, broadcast revenue still plays the biggest role in bolstering clubs’ coffers, amounting to 44 per cent of total earnings.
But Deloitte credit the teams who rely less on TV money with fairing better.
Deloitte Sports Business Group partner Dan Jones said: “Barcelona are a clear example of a club adapting to changing market conditions, reducing the reliance on broadcast revenue and focusing on growing revenues within its control.”
The LaLiga leaders aim to break the one-billion euro revenue barrier, but won’t be able to offload a star to sneak into ten figures because player sale revenue does not contribute to Deloitte’s calculation.
