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Real Madrid, Barcelona named the most valuable clubs on Forbe’s latest list

Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid alongside Lionel Messi of Barcelona

photo by Javier Garcia/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

When it comes to the world’s most valuable soccer clubs, Spain currently takes the cake.

Forbes named its latest list of most valuable teams on Wednesday, and Real Madrid and Barcelona grabbed first and second place, respectively, to mark the first time that two Spanish sides have finished in the top two spots since Forbes began compiling this list a decade ago.

According to Forbes, Real Madrid’s revenue for the 2012-13 campaign was $675 million. That figure is the most of any team in any sport in history and has helped the club become worth $3.44 billion, which is up more than four percent from where they were a year ago.

Barcelona, meanwhile, posted the second-highest revenue at $627 million and are up 23 percent from last year to currently be worth $3.2 billion.

Manchester United finished in third and is worth $2.8 billion. The English heavyweights value fell 11 percent due to the subpar campaign in the Premiership and missing out on next season’s UEFA Champions League, but their new seven-year jersey deal with Chevrolet has helped them recover some of those financial losses.

Bayern Munich, last year’s Champions League winners, saw a 41 percent increase in value. The German giants are now worth $1.85 billion.

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What do you make of these numbers? Surprised that Madrid and Barcelona finished in the top two spots? Think there’s too much money in soccer these days?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Given that Real and Barca split a significant amount of the TV rights dough for La Liga it’s no surprise that they are where they are. Most of the other leagues divide the money among the clubs but La Liga allows Real and Barca to financially dope themselves at the expense of the other clubs. If Platini really believed in fairness he’d take CL spots away from La Liga until there was a change made.

    Reply
  2. “The English heavyweights value fell 11 percent”

    This is going to be get so much worse when they don’t get the revenues from it.

    Reply
      • That’s the valuation of the club on revenue projections.

        It’s going to fall a lot more when it comes time to report actual revenues for the next season and United is 100 million dollars fewer.

      • New shirt deal from Chevrolet kicks in next year and closes some of that hole, but still a sizeable revenue hole with no CL.

      • So how much more is their value going to drop? The 11% drop takes into account no European football. The revenue projections are not expecting revenue from Champions League.

      • Right, but the business world is particularly potent in that regard.

        You always take valuation hits when projected revenue falls and then you take a bigger hit when the actual numbers are released confirming it. 0

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