Football's richest clubs
Manchester United have retained their position as the world's richest club - in terms of income - for the 2003-04 season, but Real Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal have closed the gap.
This is the top 20 in the Deloitte Football Money League (2002-03 position in brackets):
1 (1) Manchester United - £171.5 million
2 (4) Real Madrid - £156.3 million
3 (3) AC Milan - £147.2 million
4 (10) Chelsea - £143.7 million
5 (2) Juventus - £142.4 million
6 (7) Arsenal - £115.0 million
7 (13) Barcelona - £112.0 million
8 (6) Inter Milan - £110.3 million
9 (5) Bayern Munich - £110.1 million
10 (8) Liverpool - £92.3 million
11 (9) Newcastle United - £90.5 million
12 (11) Roma - £72.0 million
13 (18) Celtic - £69.0 million
14 (16) Tottenham - £66.3 million
15 (15) Lazio - £65.8 million
16 (-) Manchester City - £61.9 million
17 (14) Schalke - £60.5 million
18 (-) Marseille - £58.3 million
19 (-) Rangers - £57.1 million
20 (-) Aston Villa - £55.9 million
Manchester United - Position: 1st. Income: £171.5 million (02-03 - 1st, £174.9 million)
- United are said to have "perhaps the most progressive commercial strategy of any football club", revolving around their partnerships with Nike (£303million deal over 13 years) and Vodafone (£36million shirt sponsorship over four years).
- They claim a total of 75million fans worldwide and sold a total of 3.8 million replica shirts over the past two seasons, a third of which were outside the UK.
Chelsea - Position: 4th. Income: £143.7 million (02-03 - 10th, £93.1 million)
- Chelsea suffer from a stadium capacity of just 42,500 but, with a run to the Champions League semi-finals and high ticket prices, their match-day revenues still totalled £53.6 million last season.
Arsenal - Position: 6th. Income: £115 million (02-03 - 7th, £104.1 million).
- Despite hosting 29 home games last season, with a run to the Champions League quarter-finals, FA Cup semi-finals and Carling Cup semi-finals, as well as an unbeaten Premiership campaign, their match-day revenue was still just £33.8 million.
- That will nevertheless change after their move to the 60,000-capacity Emirates stadium in 2006-07, while their commercial partnership with Emirates (shirt sponsorship for eight years and stadium naming rights for 15 years is worth £90 million).
