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Man U Still Most Valuable Soccer Club

Forbes has released its annual ranking of the world's most valuable soccer clubs and to my great surprise there were no Major League Soccer clubs listed in the top 25. Seriously, though, what is surprising is that even in the face of the worst global economy in nearly 80 years, the value of the 25 top global soccer clubs actually increased about eight percent over last year.

Once again the list is headed by Manchester United with a value of $1.87 billion, benefiting from the first year of the new television deals which the English Premier League entered into over the last couple of years. The Red Devils were also the leaders in income with $160 million, coming in second to Real Madrid in gross revenue with a mere $512 million. ManU has two potentially significant untapped revenue sources which could bring in large sums in the next year or two to bring down a portion of its $1 billion debt. The club could sell naming rights to its venerable stadium Old Trafford, although it would risk angering its supporters once again, and its current jersey contract is with global insurer AIG, who undoubtedly would like to find a way out of the contract considering the hundreds of billions of dollars it is now losing and the hundreds of billions it is taking from the US taxpayers.

Coming in second again is Real Madrid, whose value is pegged at $1.3 billion. English clubs made up 8 of the top 25, while there are 6 German clubs, buoyed by new television rights deals, topped by Bayern Munich. There are 4 Italian clubs, all in the top 15.

In addition, there are only two Spanish clubs, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, in the top 10. One reason for the relative lack of Spanish clubs, as compared to the English, German and Italian, is the difference in the way the leagues handle television rights. The Spanish clubs are free to sell television rights individually while the other leagues sell them collectively, boosting all of the clubs, not just the top 2 or 3. Like the NFL, which has become America's game primarily through its adroit handling of its television rights, collective sale has enabled all clubs to thrive and brought balance to the league, creating more interest in the league race every year. One of these years, La Liga will learn this too.

Here's a video from Forbes on television rights for European soccer:

Full post as published by Sports Biz on April 09, 2009 (boomark / email).