25 January 2024 , 06:00
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Liverpool have suffered the biggest drop in Deloitte’s Football Money League.
Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool have slipped down the rankings in the latest table compiled by the football financial experts. Liverpool have had the biggest fall of any club in the top 20, from third place down to seventh, after Deloitte found their revenue had dropped slightly from £594.3million to £593.8m.
Deloitte said that was because of Liverpool’s on-field performance, with the club finishing fifth in the Premier League last season and bowing out in the Champions League last 16. Manchester United dropped one place to fifth despite a healthier revenue figure than the season before, while treble winners City were leapfrogged by Real Madrid and now sit second, despite posting a record Premier League revenue figure in their most recent accounts.
Deloitte said European clubs like Paris Saint Germain - who have entered the top three for the first time - and Barcelona have made up ground with the latter moving up three places to seventh with a revenue figure of £696m.
Tim Bridge, the lead partner in Deloitte's Sports Business Group, said: "There is a point in time, a moment here, where you've got Real Madrid and Barcelona redeveloping their stadiums, they have made moves towards controlling much more of their operations, particularly merchandising and licensing, so those revenue figures are a result of direct changes they have made to their business model.
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"When we look at the Premier League holistically we're not 100 per cent certain the days of significant domestic growth in media rights is over, but what we can say is, without significant competition coming into that market, then single-figure percentage growth is the likely outcome in that domestic market. Therefore the focus is on what can be done in the international market.
"What has always underpinned the fact there have been 10 or 11 Premier League clubs in the Money League has been that the media rights growth has given them significant distributions. Other leagues have caught up and there has been a slight plateauing of Premier League rights.”
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The top 10 teams on Deloitte's money league (Deloitte)Liverpool are in line to improve on last season's fifth place finish, with Champions League qualification - and perhaps even a first league title since 2020 - on the cards. Jurgen Klopp's team sit top of the league after 48 points, five clear of reigning champions Manchester City (who have a game in hand) and eight clear of fifth place after the same number of matches played.
It's a different story for Manchester United, who face an uphill battle to return to the Champions League after this season's group stage elimination. The non-Premier League sides in the top 10 are looking healthier, though.
Real Madrid and Barcelona both remain on course for top-four finishes in Spain, while Paris Saint-Germain have a healthy lead at the top of Ligue 1. Bayern Munich are also flying high in Germany, though they could end up missing out on the Bundesliga title unless they can claw back ground on league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.