Last year, Real Madrid dominated on the pitch with only two losses across 55 games. The club extended records with a 36th LaLiga title, nine more than rival FC Barcelona, and a 15th Champions League (or European Cup) win, more than twice as many as next-best AC Milan’s seven.
Things were even better off the field for Los Blancos, which became the first soccer club to generate €1 billion in operating revenue in a season and booked $1.13 billion. The trophies boosted Madrid’s financials, including $154 million in prize money for winning the Champions League. But the biggest factor was the five-year, $1.2 billion renovation of its Santiago Bernabéu Stadium completed in 2024.
Real Madrid matchday revenue doubled to $346 million, twice as much as any other club, thanks in part to personal seat licenses that brought in $82 million. Commercial revenue from sponsorships and merchandise jumped 23% to $439 million, boosted by the club’s first sleeve sponsorship—a deal with tech giant HP.
The moves pushed Real Madrid to the top of Sportico’s 50 most valuable soccer clubs at $6.53 billion, up 8% and ahead of Manchester United ($6.09 billion), which ranked first the past two years. The top 50 soccer clubs are worth a combined $86 billion, up 8% over last year. The strength of the Euro, up 5% versus Sportico’s 2024 soccer valuations, and British pound, up 6%, helped fuel the gains.
Rounding out the top five are FC Barcelona ($5.71 billion), Liverpool ($5.59 billion) and Bayern Munich ($5.21 billion).
Click here for the full list of teams and a complete methodology.
Manchester United’s value dipped 2% as the 20-time English champions have endured a brutal year-plus since Jim Ratcliffe paid $1.6 billion for 27.7% of the club. In February, United said it would lay off 150 to 200 employees, on top of the 250 employees who were let go last year. The club currently sits 15th in the Premier League table with three games to go. Last season’s eighth-place finish was its previous worst result since the EPL launched in 1992.
The Red Devils are down, but the Premier League has separated itself as the strongest soccer league in the world on the pitch and for generating revenue. TV has been the driving force. U.K. rights for the Premier League have stagnated, but the international rights, where there is more competition, continue to make gains.
The current cycle runs from the 2022-23 season through this season and was worth roughly £10.5 billion over the three years, with £4.9 billion from domestic rights and £5.6 billion from international ones. It was the first cycle where international rights were higher. The £3.5 billion per year average equates to $4.6 billion based on current exchange rates. Sheffield United finished 20th in the table last season and earned a $138 million distribution.
The Premier League’s international rights are worth more than the four other Big Five European soccer leagues combined.
The TV situation is particularly dire in France, where DAZN holds domestic rights to Ligue 1. This season was the first of a four-year deal, but the U.K. streamer has been trying to renegotiate the terms of that agreement for several months.
Fourteen Premier League teams made Sportico’s top 50, up from nine last year. Big gainers include Newcastle United ($930 million), Aston Villa ($850 million), Everton ($845 million) and AFC Bournemouth ($630 million). Nottingham Forest, Fulham and recently promoted Leeds United are knocking on the door of the top 50.
Villa secured promotion to the Premier League ahead of the 2019-20 EPL season and steadily progressed up the table to last year’s fourth-place finish. This year, it made the quarterfinals of Champions League before falling to Paris Saint-Germain.
“Winning is one thing, but being ready to capitalize on it is another,” Chris Heck, Aston Villa president of business operations, told Sportico in March. Heck expects revenue for the 2024-25 season to approach £370 million ($490 million based on current exchange rates), double the £179 million posted by the club during the 2021-22 season.
Europe dominates the top of the financial table with six Premier League clubs in the top 15 and three each from LaLiga and Serie A. But MLS heavily populates the bottom 70% of the list with 19 entries, led by Los Angeles FC at No. 16 with a valuation of $1.28 billion.
MLS can’t match the revenue of top European clubs, but it has the advantage on cost controls, modern stadiums and a single-entity structure that fosters ownership collaboration. The lack of relegation also sets a floor for MLS values that has risen dramatically over the past decade.
Revenue multiples remain the standard that most bankers apply to valuing sports franchises. In MLS, teams are valued at an average of 9.4 times revenue, versus 4.9 times for the non-MLS teams in the top 50 list. That is a weighted average. The unweighted average outside MLS is 4.2, with a median of 3.5.
The get-in price for the top 50 has climbed from $525 million in 2023 to $550 million last year and now to $610 million. The 16% two-year jump severely lags the rise in the NHL (143%), NBA (88%) and NFL (66%). You can point to the economic system that permeates throughout European soccer leagues.
“You’ll find LaLiga, Premier League, PSG and Bayern shirts and branding in every corner of the world, and few industries can match football’s combination of reach and soft power,” Alexander Jarvis, whose Blackbridge Sports LLC advisory firm specializes in soccer club acquisitions, said in a phone interview. “Yet, it’s rare to see a profitable football club at the top level in either Spain or England. The model is far from ideal, particularly for American investors accustomed to closed leagues, monopoly structures and no relegation.”
Manchester United will soon report a sixth straight year of losing money. Five of the top 15 clubs had an operating loss greater than $60 million combined during their past two seasons. PSG lost $60 million during the 2023-24 season, but it was better than the $117 million and $400 million shortfalls the previous two years. The losses are also steep further down the table, with Aston Villa (-$95 million), AS Roma (-$70 million), Everton (-$55 million) and Bournemouth (-$70 million) posting big red numbers.
German teams tend to have the most financial discipline. One problem: you can’t buy a Bundesliga club due to the league’s “50+1” rule that requires club members to be the controlling shareholder.
“The absence of effective cost controls on player salaries significantly undermines the financial sustainability of these clubs,” Jarvis said.
The lousy economic model explains why Real Madrid and Manchester United are the only soccer teams ranked in the top 20 of the world’s most valuable sports franchises, which skews heavily toward the NFL with its strict salary cap and $400-million-a-year TV checks. The top 100 franchises feature all 32 NFL teams and all 30 NBA teams, but just 10 soccer clubs.
There were LP deals in global soccer last year, with the biggest being Ratcliffe’s Manchester United investment, but control sales at the top of global football have been rare since a trio of deals in 2022 when Chelsea sold for $3.2 billion, AC Milan for $1.2 billion and Olympique Lyonnais for $825 million.
The only one of the top 50 clubs to sell since 2022 was Everton. The Friedkin Group completed its takeover in December at a £645 million enterprise valuation ($806 million at the time), according to multiple people familiar with the terms. The deal was 3.5 times revenue, which should surge when the team moves into its new stadium for the 2025-26 season.