Football has a lot of money. We all know that! And when we are talking about the top tier leagues – such as the EPL, La Liga or Serie A, we are talking big money! And it’s not only the football clubs that see their value rise by making multimillion dollar agreements for broadcasting rights, sponsorships or contracts and sales, but it’s also other parties, non-directly involved with the sport, that make a fortune out of football.
Sports betting for example is a highly lucrative industry, especially in Europe, particularly due to football, since sportsbooks and even uudet vedonlyöntisivustot actually get an influx of bets for every major football match… And sometimes it doesn’t have to be a major football match… It only takes to be a football match!
But the real money is for the clubs! Forbes published the list with the most valuable football clubs across the world for 2023 and we have been astonished by the incredible amounts that we saw in this list.
Let’s see some of the most interesting facts.
Real Madrid and Manchester United sit on the top of the list
Two οf the world’s top football clubs are worth more than $12 billion in total. Real Madrid and Manchester United, each with nearly $6 million top the list of the highest valued clubs in the world.
More specifically, Real Madrid is worth $6.07 billion (almost 19% up from the previous year) and the Red Devils are worth about $6 billion (almost 30% up compared to last year). Likewise, the brand values of each of the two sit at the top of the ranking, with the Los Galacticos being assessed at almost 1.01billion and their English counterparts at 1billion!
Real Madrid and Manchester United are traditionally among the highest valued clubs
Both clubs are always on the top five of the list of the most valuable football clubs. They’ve never been out of the top five ever since Forbes’ list was first published back in the early 2000s.
Newcastle United was the absolute winner in terms of value growth
Newcastle United saw their value growing by 51% compared to the previous year, reaching almost $794 million when it was only nearly $528 million. Next on the clubs with the greatest growth in valuation is Olympique Lyonnais, which marked a 47% increase this year. Their value is now at $734 million. when last year was only $499 million
But there are other clubs as well, that have recorded not only double-digit growth but growth exceeding the more moderate 10%. PSG’s value currently stands at 4.21 billion, when last year it was almost $3.2 billion, which means that there is a growth of nearly 32%. Very impressive indeed, despite the fact that the club showed a decrease in their operating income this year. Their brand value remains high and it justifies the growth in the value.
West Ham United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are among the clubs whose average growth was at approximately 19%. Pretty good for those EPL teams as well!
Some clubs saw their value decline
Three clubs from the top tiers of European Leagues marked a decline in their value, opposite to what their fellow or rival teams have done in the same year.
Premier League’s Everton and Leicester City lost value this year, compared to the previous year. Everton’s value fell by almost 21%, while Leicester City’s value dropped by 16%. In the same manner, Juventus from Serie A in Italy saw their value go down. Their current value is 12% lower than their value last year.
Well, these are the most interesting figures from the list that Forbes publishes on the value of the European football clubs. In their vast majority, clubs managed to grow their value but there have been some cases where value has declined. No matter what, however, football remains a sport that has a LOT of money!