The Guardian on Deloitte's Football Money League.
Manchester United have slipped to fourth in the table of the world's biggest-earning clubs. Having topped the list for eight successive years until last February, when they were overtaken by Real Madrid, the Premiership leaders find themselves trailing Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus.
United's income has shrunk over each of the past two seasons, according to the Football Money League released by the business advisory firm Deloitte.
Its rich list puts United's revenue, based on financial information for the 2005-06 season, at €242.6m (£160m). The figure the previous year was €246.4m and 12 months earlier it stood at €259m. Liverpool were the only other club in the list's current top 10 whose income declined on a year ago.
"Manchester United didn't have a particularly great season on the pitch in 2005-06," said Alan Switzer, a senior consultant in the sports business group at Deloitte. "They got knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage and that was one of the main reasons [for the decline in revenue]. English clubs in general haven't increased their revenue that much over the last couple of years because they are midway through the current TV deal
"I think United will, with the Old Trafford expansion being properly on line for the whole season this year, plus the AIG sponsorship being about 50% bigger than the previous Vodafone deal, start to grow that revenue organically. And then when you put on top of that the new TV deal from 2007-08, which all the English clubs will benefit from, we do expect them to bounce back and challenge further up the table."
Switzer pointed out that United's figures are also "understated" because, unlike some clubs, they take the net rather than gross revenue from deals such as a merchandising tie-up with Nike. "It is also notable," said his colleague, Paul Rawnsley, "that United remain the most profitable club football operation in the world."
Madrid and Barcelona hold the top two places. "Both those clubs benefit from doing individual TV deals, which means they generate more TV revenue than any of the English clubs," Switzer said. "There's a collective-versus-individual selling advantage which the two big Spanish clubs benefit from.
"It's been a success story for Madrid and Barcelona rather than necessarily a negative one for English clubs. Madrid have done it via primarily growing the commercial revenue from the Galáctico strategy, building on the Beckhams and Zidanes to increase domestically and overseas.
"Barcelona have a more balanced revenue mix between match-day, commercial and broadcasting. They have had a big push on membership and have 150,000 members, which has helped drive their revenue. They have also increased their corporate hospitality."
The rich list 05-06 04-05
1 (1) Real Madrid €292.2m €275.7m
2 (6) Barcelona 259.1 207.9
3 (4) Juventus 251.2 229.4
4 (2) Man United 242.6 246.4
5 (3) Milan 238.7 234.0
6 (5) Chelsea 221.0 220.8
7 (9) Inter 206.6 177.2
8 (7) Bayern M 204.7 189.5
9 (10) Arsenal 192.4 171.3
10 (8) Liverpool 176 181.2
11 (15) Lyon 127.7 92.9
12 (11) Roma 127 131.8
13 (12) Newcastle 124.3 128.9
14 (14) Schalke 04 122.9 97.4
15 (13) Tottenham 107.2 104.5
16 (n/a) Hamburg 101.8 n/a
17 (17) Man City 89.4 90.1m
18 (n/a) Rangers 88.5 n/a
19 (n/a) West Ham 60.1 n/a
20 (n/a) Benfica 58.8 n/a
Previous place in parentheses
Source Deloitte Football Money League