Manchester City overthrew Real Madrid, Spain, from the top of the most valuable clubs in Europe, according to a report published – yesterday, Thursday – before the UEFA Champions League final.
The Football Benchmark report ranked the top 32 clubs in Europe based on a series of criteria, including ratings for their financial statements, team value and the size of their broadcasting market.
City, which is playing Saturday in Istanbul, the final match of the prestigious continental competition against Inter Milan, Italy, came in first place, with a value of 4.073 billion euros.
The site stated that this number made the “Citizens” surpass the “Royal” European champion last year, who fell to second place by a narrow difference of 4.006 billion euros.
The Spanish giant, who holds the record for the number of titles in the prestigious continental competition (14), has occupied the lead in the past four years.
The report stated that City “raised in the ranking by 5 places compared to the 2022 edition, thanks in the first place to the impressive financial performance recorded in the fiscal year 2021-2022.”
He added that the Premier League champion recorded revenues last season of 613 million pounds (717 million euros), which is the second highest revenue figure in the history of the English club after the revenues of its neighbor and arch-rivals Manchester United, which amounted to 734 million euros in 2019.
However, in February the Premier League charged Manchester City with 115 alleged breaches of its financial rules between 2009 and 2018. A ruling on the case is not likely any time soon.
Manchester United, with a value of 3.93 billion euros, concluded the trio in front of compatriot Liverpool and Bayern Munich directly.
The Old Trafford club is currently bidding on its purchase, as Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jabor Al Thani and British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe hope to acquire Manchester United from the American Glazer family.
The Glazer family, who owned the club in 2005, is determined to agree to the sale of 6 billion pounds (7 billion euros).
