By Toby Prince
A survey by website Sporting Intelligence has revealed just how much each of this season’s 20 English Premier League sides are worth, delving deeper than the usual balance sheet to use set of financial criteria including total revenue, assets, stadium capacity and wage ratio.
Manchester United remain the wealthiest team in English top flight closely followed by Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Domestic drought seems to have taken a toll on Liverpool who are ranked sixth, while academy success mean Southampton, ranked seventh, are among the biggest clubs in the league.
Newcastle, Everton and West Ham complete the top 10 richest teams in the Premier League. New boys Bournemouth are the lowest ranked team in the league as they depend solely on income generated from television rights.
Below are the top five teams, their equivalent worth and sources of income:
- Manchester United – £1,848billion
It’s not a great surprise that the commercial behemoth that is Manchester United are top of this list. One of the biggest clubs in the world, the Red Devils can boast of the largest shirt sponsorship (£47million from Chevrolet per season) and kit deals (a cool three-quarters of a billion pounds over 10 years) on the planet and play in the biggest club stadium in the country.
- Arsenal – £1,118billion
Wengernomics have transformed Arsenal into a model club, financially speaking. While the Gunners boss is criticised by some frustrated fans for his prudent control of the chequebook, he has personally overseen the construction and finance of the Emirates Stadium, which plays to large gates and brings in huge corporate revenues every game to leave the Gunners profitable and cash rich.
- Manchester City – £907million
They easily have the richest owner – with Shekh Mansour worth almost four times as much as Roman Abramovich – but don’t crack the top two according to Sporting Intelligence’s criteria. This is largely down to their stadium being owned by the local council and the possibly – albeit diminished – of Financial Fair Play sanctions. Their new £200million training complex is an excellent asset and have not had to invest the kinds of sums into their stadiums that Chelsea and Tottenham have.
- Chelsea – £826million
As in Liverpool’s case, their matchday revenue is limited by their stadium, but the Blues have London property prices to contend with if they are to redevelop Stamford Bridge. A record sponsorship deal with Yokohama has helped see the club’s value increase by more than a third over the previous two seasons.
- Tottenham – £710million
Tottenham will be quids in when they complete work on their new stadium in 2018 and will be able to boast of having London’s biggest club stadium when capacity is swelled to 61,000. They will also then benefit financially from their ten-year agreement with the NFL, which will them host at least two games a season.
