Real Madrid has overtaken Manchester United as Europe’s most valuable club according to new analysis from KPMG.
The Spanish giants were propelled to the top of the list by growing commercial revenues after winning three Champions League trophies in a row.
Real Madrid’s “enterprise value” grew by 10% to €3.22bn (£2.84bn) at the start of 2019, while Manchester United’s fell by 1% to €3.21bn (£2.83bn), according to the analysis.
The Old Trafford club has not won the Champions League since 2008 and has dismissed a succession of managers since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.
KPMG’s list analyses the publicly available financial statements of 38 top European football clubs and does not include any impact of the 2018/19 season which has just concluded.
Third spot goes to Bayern Munich, overtaking Barcelona which has slipped to fourth – weighed down by an increasingly onerous wage bill.
After that, the top 10 is dominated by English teams, with champions Manchester City, valued at €2.46bn (£2.17bn), in fifth place – followed by Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham.
The tenth richest club is Italy’s Juventus, according to the analysis.
KPMG’s list also includes Leicester City and West Ham, in 16th and 17th positions, as well as Everton in 20th.
Celtic, in 30th, becomes the first club from Scotland to join the top 32 in four years of analysis, with a valuation of €252m (£222m).
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KPMG noted that the combined value of the 32 leading teams had risen by 9% over a period when Europe’s benchmark stock market index had fallen 13%.
Andrea Sartori, KPMG’s global head of sports and author of the report, said it showed the pace at which the football industry was evolving.
He said the “transition of major clubs into media and entertainment companies, with global brand exposure” helped to “create more stable and predictable cash flows” making them better bets for investors and lenders.
