The Richest Football Clubs in Europe in 2024

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Football at Europe’s elite level continues to be a massive money-making enterprise and there has been little indication to suggest the game’s financial bubble will burst any time soon.

Football clubs’ finances are headline news and have earned a prominent place in the game’s media cycle, with supporters keen to track how their club performs off the pitch in terms of revenue.

More revenue means more money for transfer fees and wages, and in football’s modern era, cash and success go hand in hand.

Each year, financial services and auditing firm Deloitte release their “Football Money League”, which is generally seen as the gold standard guide for football’s finances and the most referenced and reliable list of the world’s richest football clubs published anywhere.

The most recent and 28^th edition of the Deloitte Football Money League analysed the financial flow of football’s richest clubs using data from the 2023/24 season and it threw up several points of interest.

Europe’s richest clubs: Deloitte’s top 20

Spanish giants Real Madrid have been perennial table toppers of the Deloitte Football Money League, though they made history in 2023/24, becoming the first European club to break through the one-billion-euro barrier.

In 2023/24, Los Blancos became the first football club ever to generate more than €1billion in a single campaign with their surge past ten-digit earnings powered by the expansion of their home ground, the Bernabéu Stadium

With their renovated stadium in full use, Real Madrid enjoyed a 103% increase from the season before on their matchday revenues, which totalled €248m in 2023/24, while the club also reported a 20% increase in commercial revenue.

No other club came close to matching Real Madrid’s record-breaking revenues in 2023/24, indeed, Los Blancos earned roughly 24.7% more than their closest rival in the Deloitte League, Man City, and 37.5% more than their La Liga rivals, Barcelona.

Premier League: a financial powerhouse

While the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid, continued to set the standard for overall revenue generation in 2023/24, England’s Premier League was Europe’s most dominant domestic division in Deloitte’s list.

Of the top 20 earners on the rundown for 2023/24, there were nine representatives from England’s cash-laden Premier League, while six English clubs occupied positions in the list’s top ten.

Manchester City posted England’s highest revenue figures for the campaign, though their figure of €837.8m represented just a 1% increase on their numbers from the previous season.

City’s finances also continue to be the subject of close scrutiny with the verdict from their 115 charges case set to be announced in the summer.

Crisis club Manchester United’s 2023/24 revenues of €770.6m were a 3% increase on the figures posted 12 months ago, though their bottom line is on course to take a considerable hit due to the absence of Champions League football.

English clubs Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa also all made the cut for Deloitte’s 2023/24 Football Money League.

Arsenal enjoyed the biggest jump, increasing their annual revenues by a mammoth 35% between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, with broadcasting payouts from Champions League participation the driving force there.

PSG and Bayern Munich maintain heavyweight status

Eight of the top ten clubs listed in Deloitte’s catalogue of Europe’s richest clubs are from either England’s Premier League or Spain’s La Liga, leaving PSG and Bundesliga the only representatives in the league’s upper end from the rest of the continent.

PSG and Bayern Munich, who are regularly listed among the bookmakers’ favourites for top honours on Champions League betting sites, are two of Europe’s most successful clubs in terms of winning silverware.

Both clubs are also commercial juggernauts and slick operators in the realm of sports marketing, squeezing every drop of value out of their respective brands.

PSG, who have made it to at least the semi-final of the Champions League semi-finals in four of the last six seasons, have seen their revenues leap from €654m to €806m since 2022, while their expenditure on player wages has decreased during the same period.

Bayern Munich meanwhile, have increased their commercial revenues from €378m to €421m since 2022, while their overall incoming figure for 2023/24 of €765.4m is a 3% improvement from their last set of yearly accounts.

Europe’s richest clubs: the future

Football clubs’ quest for more cash is set to continue at the same pace for the foreseeable future, with more matches, bigger stadiums and wider-reaching commercial ventures all in the pipeline.

FIFA’s expanded World Club Cup promises to deliver prize money and broadcasting revenue by the bag load, while football ground projects across Europe continue to be unveiled at an unprecedented rate.

The continent’s biggest clubs have also been seeking out highly-paid exhibition matches in far-flung reaches in the Middle East, Asia and the USA, with plans to stage competitive fixtures on the other side of the globe also ramping up.

Critics have suggested that financial gain has been taking precedence over player welfare, though there has been some pushback from footballers who feel they are being overstretched and exploited.

Still, with their employers controlling the purse strings, it’s difficult to see how player power can slow football club’s incessant chase for more money.