Richest football clubs list

For the sixth consecutive year, the Spanish giants Real Madrid have finished top of Deloitte's prestigious list of the world's richest football clubs. The top of the list was dominated by the two major Spanish rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona, who reported revenues of 438.6 million and 398.1 million respectively. The global powerhouse Manchester United maintained their place in the top three, while six other clubs from the English Premier League appeared in the top twenty. The supremacy of English clubs in Deloitte's money table for the 2009/10 season suggests that Premier League is the still the most financially successful league in global football. All of the "big five" European leagues are represented in the list with Germany's Bundesliga contributing four clubs, four clubs from Italy, three from Spain and two from the French league. Real Madrid's financial success is based on their shrewd property developments in the early part of the century, particularly the sale of their training ground to the city of Madrid in 2001, which eradicated debts of EUR270 million. The property sale allowed the club to purchase some of the most recognisable players in the world and boosted their ability to market to the lucrative Asian market. A large portion of the club's revenue comes from ticket sales, which amounted to EUR150 million for the 2009-10 season.