Manchester United have fallen three places on the global list when it comes to brand value as Old Trafford boss Ruben Amorim looks to revive his side's fortunes
A general view of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium
Manchester United have been impacted by a poor 2024/25 season
(Image: Matt West/Shutterstock)
While Manchester United’s summer transfer business has raised expectations that the 2025/26 Premier League campaign will be a far happier one than last season, finishing 15th in 2024/25 has been impactful.
Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko have all arrived at Old Trafford this summer as head coach Ruben Amorim plots to restore United's standing in the Premier League, with qualifying for the Champions League at the top of the agenda to help give United's finances a significant boost.
The club's struggles of last season were more profound than they have been for decades, but competitive success has been hard to come by for United in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, one that ended in 2013.
But being one of the world’s most iconic and well supported sporting institutions has remained and that has meant that the club has still been able to rely on significantly high revenues when compared to many of their rivals in the Premier League, although their closest rivals, the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, have been able to chip away at the financial dominance that United had, and even surpassed them in some cases.
Arsenal and Liverpool have seen 97 per cent and 64 per cent growth in commercial revenue since 2019, while United have seen just ten per cent. For 2023/24, the most recently published set of financial accounts, Liverpool surpassed United for the first time when it came to commercial revenue as they leveraged a return to competitive success.
The 2025 Brand Finance Football 50 report, published on Thursday, details the brand value of the top 50 clubs in European football, a key metric when determining just how attractive clubs are to potential commercial partners.
Brand value is calculated by assessing the earnings of clubs that are specifically related to brand reputation. Clubs own and control earnings by owning the trademark rights.
Every year, brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance puts 5,000 of the biggest brands to the test and publishes around 100 reports, ranking brands across many sectors and countries. The football industry's top 50 most valuable and strongest brands are included in the annual Brand Finance Football 50 ranking. This valuation, generated by professional accountants in compliance with ISO brand valuation standards, seeks to estimate the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.
In addition to calculating brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance.
For the 2025 list, United have fallen three places from fourth to seventh as the brand value dropped to $1.39bn (£1.02bn), a fall of $100 million (£74m) year-on-year compared to the 2024 report. United do, however, retain a AAA+ brand rating.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League success saw them overtake United and occupy fifth spot, with Real Madrid and Barcelona occupying the top two places at $2.14bn and $1.9bn, respectively. Manchester City saw an 11 per cent drop to $1.6bn to fall to third, with Liverpool seeing an increase to $1.57bn to close the gap, with Premier League title success aiding that growth.
Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur made up spots eight, nine and ten on the list.
Hugo Hensley, head of sports services at Brand Finance said: “The combined value of the world’s top 50 football club brands has climbed to €21.9 billion in 2025.
“However, Brand Finance research reveals a growing imbalance across the game, as outside of the Premier League, brand value is increasingly concentrated among a handful of elite clubs in Europe’s top leagues. Brand is no longer a byproduct of performance but is now a defining driver of success. As the sport becomes increasingly competitive both on the pitch and commercially, clubs and leagues must manage their brands strategically to ensure they aren’t edged out of realising the benefits of a strong and valuable brand.”
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