Manchester City top Deloitte Money League for second straight year

(Reuters) - Manchester City have topped the Deloitte Football Money League for the second year in a row as the world's highest revenue-generating club in the 2021-22 season in which fans returned to stadiums as COVID-19 restrictions were eased.

Abu Dhabi-owned City generated total revenue of 731 million euros ($790.65 million), followed by Real Madrid (714 million euros) and Liverpool (702 million euros).

City's rivals Manchester United generated 689 million euros and Paris St Germain made 654 million euros.

Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, West Ham United, Leicester City, Leeds United, Everton and Newcastle United were all on the list as the Premier League clubs made up 11 of the top 20.

City posted a Premier League record commercial revenue of 373 million euros in 2021-22, a growth of 65 million euros from the previous season.

Liverpool were the biggest movers in this year's edition of the Money League, rising four places from seventh to third to achieve their highest-ever position.

The Merseyside club overtook Manchester United in the rankings for the first time, following their run to the 2022 Champions League final which generated additional broadcast revenue.

Liverpool were also only one of five clubs to report over 100 million euros in matchday revenue, which was the first time the club had done so, as fans returned to stadiums.

Among the LaLiga teams, Barcelona and Real Madrid have yet to recover revenue to their pre-pandemic levels, with the clubs' revenues down 203 million euros and 43 million euros respectively from 2018-19, the report said.

LaLiga issued a statement following the publication of the report saying it contained "manifestly erroneous data" with regard to the income from the league's television rights.

"The information presented by Deloitte in which it pointed out that LaLiga's income from audiovisual rights has decreased is completely incorrect and the LaLiga has alerted the consutancy to this error," the statement added.

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

For the first time, Deloitte's Football Money League also reported on revenues generated from the women's teams at Money League clubs, with sides reporting average revenues of 2.4 million euros in the 2021-22 season.

Barcelona generated the highest revenue, with 7.7 million euros, having reached the Champions League final in 2022 and winning the competition in 2021.

Manchester United reported the second-highest revenue with 6 million euros, followed by City (5.1 million euros), PSG (3.6 million euros), Arsenal (2.2 million euros) and Spurs (2.1 million euros).