Barcelona top, Manchester United drop on Forbes' list of most valuable clubs
Barcelona have broken Real Madrid and Manchester United’s duopoly on Forbes’ list of the 20 most valuable soccer teams.
Manchester United topped the pile 11 times and Real Madrid were No. 1 on five occasions over the past 16 years, but Barcelona have risen to the summit despite the unclear future of superstar Lionel Messi and the club dealing with gross debts of €1.2 billion.
Despite the huge drops in revenue caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Forbes’ top 20 clubs are worth an average of $2.28 billion apiece, a rise of 30% from two years ago. This is because of the “untapped revenue potential in the sport’s massive global following,” the business magazine explains.
RedBird Capital’s recent acquisition of a minority stake in Liverpool’s holding company, Fenway Sports Group, valued the reigning Premier League champions at over $4 billion, according to Forbes. That figure represents roughly 6.4 times the Merseyside outfit’s revenue.
Liverpool are now the 12th-most valuable team across all sports after an 88% increase in their valuation from two years ago.
England’s Premier League dominates Forbes’ top 20 with nine representatives. Four clubs hail from Italy, while three are from Spain, two are from Germany, and one each from France and the Netherlands.
The ranking:
| # | Club | Revenue (2020) | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | $792M | $4.76B |
| 2 | Real Madrid | $792M | $4.75B |
| 3 | Bayern Munich | $703M | $4.215B |
| 4 | Manchester United | $643M | $4.2B |
| 5 | Liverpool | $619M | $4.1B |
| 6 | Manchester City | $609M | $4B |
| 7 | Chelsea | $520M | $3.2B |
| 8 | Arsenal | $430M | $2.8B |
| 9 | Paris Saint-Germain | $599M | $2.5B |
| 10 | Tottenham Hotspur | $494M | $2.3B |
| 11 | Juventus | $441M | $1.95B |
| 12 | Borussia Dortmund | $405M | $1.9B |
| 13 | Atletico Madrid | $368M | $1B |
| 14 | Inter Milan | $323M | $743M |
| 15 | Everton | $235M | $658M |
| 16 | AC Milan | $165M | $559M |
| 17 | AS Roma | $156M | $548M |
| 18 | West Ham United | $175M | $508M |
| 19 | Leicester City | $189M | $455M |
| 20 | Ajax | $172M | $413M |
