Which clubs earn most from Europe?

Real Madrid have earned the most TV money from UEFA competitions in the last 10 years with a colossal €887m, though four other clubs have also received more than €800m in this period: Manchester City €826m, PSG €817m, Juventus €810m and Bayern Munich €802m.

There are actually three Spanish clubs in the top seven, as Barcelona are in 6th place (€721m) and Atletico Madrid are 7th (€675m), while two English clubs are not far behind, namely Chelsea €647m and Liverpool €631m.

Looking at the top 20 clubs, England have the most representatives with all of the so-called Big Six featuring, followed by Spain and Italy with four clubs apiece. Germany and Portugal both have two clubs, while France and Netherlands each have just one club.

In the last five years Manchester City have the highest growth in Europe TV revenue, more than doubling from €64m to €131m. All other clubs in the top six have also seen growth with the exception of Juventus, down 20% from €80m to €64m.

Barcelona’s revenue has risen by €13m in this period, but their annual receipts have fallen four years in a row from the €118m peak in 2019 to only €70m in 2023.

Manchester City have been by far the most successful English club in Europe with their €826m being around €200m more than the next highest English clubs, namely Chelsea €647m and Liverpool €631m. There is then a sizeable gap to Manchester United €483m, Tottenham €398m and especially Arsenal €333m.

The clubs earning most outside the Big Six are Leicester City €123m, boosted by a single appearance in the Champions League, and West Ham €53m, after winning last season’s Europa Conference League.

Liverpool have seen the most spectacular growth in Europe TV money in the last five years, more than tripling their revenue from €153m to €478m. The rest of the Big Six have all enjoyed significant increases, with the exception of Arsenal, whose revenue almost halved from €219m to €113m.

Arsenal take a hit

The big financial difference between the Champions League and the Europa League is clearly demonstrated by Arsenal’s revenue in the last decade. Even when they reached the Europa League final in 2019, they only earned €39m, which was much less than two years previously in the Champions League, when they received €65m after being eliminated in the last 16.

Given the improvement in the Champions League broadcasting deals, Arsenal’s failure to qualify recently has really hurt them financially, so it is great news for them that they are back this season.

Chelsea have won two European trophies in the last five years, so it is not a huge surprise that they are one of the highest earners in Europe with €430m in this period. However, the financial rewards for these successes was very different: they earned €120m for defeating Manchester City in the 2021 Champions League, which was miles more than the €46m they received for winning the 2019 Europa League.

Europe has been a bit of a mixed bag for Manchester United in the last 10 years, as they qualified for the Champions League six times, the Europa League three times and missed out altogether in 2015. Their best year financially was 2019 when they earned €93m for reaching the Champions League quarter-final, while they still got a total of €80m in 2021, as a disappointing group stage was supplemented by reaching the Europa League final.

Tottenham only earned €72m from Europe in the seven years up to 2016, but have received €365m in the seven-year period since then, thanks to qualifying five times for the Champions League. This figure was somewhat deflated by only receiving €9m from the Europa Conference League in 2021.

Scotland’s big two, Celtic and Rangers, earned around the same over this period with €69m and €68m respectively. However, the trend was not Celtic’s friend, as they dropped from €95m in the preceding 5-year period, while Rangers sum was all growth, as they had not qualified for Europe in the previous five years.

Fulham requires big funding from owner

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The Political Economy of Football V2

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