Spurs are the richest club in London

The latest edition of the Deloitte Money League is available: https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html

Tottenham Hotspur have overtaken Chelsea to become the richest club in London thanks to the earning power of their new stadium, according to Deloitte’s latest Football Money League.

The rankings, which cover revenues earned by clubs during the 2022-23 season, also show that Manchester City have been knocked off top spot by Real Madrid, despite Pep Guardiola’s side’s Treble-winning season.

Spurs have leapfrogged Chelsea to become the eighth richest club in the world, with annual revenues of £549.2 million — the Stamford Bridge club’s revenues have been reported as £512.5 million. Arsenal are tenth in the Money League on £463.1 million. Both Arsenal and Chelsea’s income was hit by not being in the Champions League, so Tottenham’s north London rivals should return significantly improved revenues for this season after reaching the knockout stage.

Tottenham earn more than £105 million a season in match-day income — only Manchester United make more among English clubs — while Chelsea’s is about £70 million. Spurs have also benefited from hosting NFL and rugby union matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in April 2019, as well as music concerts by artists including Beyoncé, Pink, Lady Gaga and Guns N’ Roses.

The clubs’ revenue figures do not include player sales but they are reflected in profits or losses, so the £100 million sale of Harry Kane in August 2023 did not affect Spurs’s revenues but will have improved their profit.

Real returned to the top of Deloitte’s Money League for the first time in five years thanks to a sharp rise in sponsorship and match-day income contributing to €831 million (£723 million) in revenues for the 2022-23 season. Clubs in Spain and Italy benefited from a full return of fans last season after the pandemic.

Liverpool have dropped out of the top five after a fall in income following their successful 2021-22 season, when they reached the Champions League final but lost 1-0 to Real.

Barcelona have risen back to fourth spot after raising huge sums from exploiting financial “levers”, including the sale of 49 per cent of the media content arm, Barça Vision — which according to their latest accounts raised an “extraordinary profit” of €194 million — and selling 25 per cent of their future TV revenue for the next 25 years to the US private equity firm Sixth Street. The challenge for Barcelona is that they are unlikely to be able to exploit such levers in the future.

PSG have risen from fifth to third, partly due to a €200 million income boost from the French league’s deal with investment fund CVC Capital Partners, who paid €1.5 billion for a 13 per cent share of the league’s commercial subsidiary.

Last season’s relegation of Leeds United and Leicester City means the Premier League now has eight rather than ten teams in the top 20 of the Money League. Apart from the “big six” clubs, Newcastle United and West Ham United are 17th and 18th respectively.

Wolves get raw deal from FFP

I used to see a lifelong Wolves fan for lunch once a month. He was approaching ninety, but still went to games. Sadly he passed away the other week. As football finance guru Kieran Maguire has noted, Wolves continue to be constrained by financial fair play rules. Radio 4 this morning described them as this year's 'crisis club' and the pessimists have certainly been piling in. Martin Samuel wrote sympathetically in the Sunday Times yesterday, saying that the Premier League drives talent away with regulatory red tape: 'Why could Al-Hilal sign Neves? Because Wolves needed the money. And why did Wolves need the money? Because the club had to comply with an artificial construct known as financial fair play. So Wolves are going skint, yes? No. There is no suggestion that Wolves are in financial trouble, only that they are failing to meet the rigours of FFP. Wolves’ owners appear to have the money to run the club, and invest in the club, and in fact came up with a pow

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000. The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts. Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day income is

Charlton takeover approved

The long awaited takeover of Charlton Athletic by SE7 Partners from Thomas Sandgaard has been approved: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/se7-partners-obtain-efl-approval-for-charlton-athletic-takeover/ Charlton have had unhappy experiences with owners for over a decade, so how this works out will remain to be seen. There is certainly potential there, but will it be realised? This interview with Charlie Methven gives detail not available elsewhere: https://thecharltondossier.com/charlie-methven-on-the-record/

The Political Economy of Football V2

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