Barcelona Edges Real to Become Highest-Earning Football Club

Manchester United are third on the list, behind the top two clubs from Spain.

Lionel Messi scored 51 goals for Barcelona in 50 matches during the 2018-19 season.

(Photo: AP)

FC Barcelona has topped the list of the richest football clubs in the world for the first time with a revenue of €840.8 million ($935.97 million) during the 2018-19 season, according to Deloitte's Football Money League.

Barcelona had won La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup besides finishing runners-up in Copa del Rey in the 2018-19 season.

The revenue generated by the club is a 22 per cent jump over that of the last season, when it earned €690.4 million, due to an increase in commercial revenue (€383.5 million, up 19 per cent) and broadcast revenue (€298.1 million, 34 per cent more), according to the ranking of football clubs produced annually by the accounting firm Deloitte, reports Efe news.

The increase in its earnings has allowed Barcelona to surpass its arch-rival Real Madrid, which earned €757.3 million, one per cent more than the previous season, when its revenue stood at €750.9 million.

The top 10 of the list includes five English clubs — Manchester United, which is in third place, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea — German club Bayern Munich in fourth, France's Paris Saint-Germain in fifth and Italy's Juventus in 10th.

The only other Spanish football club, apart from Barcelona and Real Madrid, among the top 20 richest clubs in the world is Atletico Madrid, which held on to its 13th spot of the previous year with revenues of €367.6 million, a 21 per cent increase.

The 20 most powerful clubs generated a revenue of €9.3 billion in the 2018-19 season, according to the 23rd edition of the ranking, 11 per cent more than the previous season, with an increase of 16 per cent in the revenue generated from television rights (a total of €575 million), an increase of 9 per cent in commercial revenue (€313 million) and four per cent more in match day revenue (tickets and passes, €51 million).