La Liga giants Real Madrid lead the way with an estimated worth of £2.07billion, but Manchester United follow them closely with a figure of £2.05bn, according to the London School of Marketing.
United and Manchester City are the only English clubs to be valued at more than £1billion with the blue half of Manchester looking to gain financial ground on their rivals in recent years.
City moved a step closer to becoming one of the superpowers of world football earlier this month by selling a stake in their parent company to a Chinese consortium for £265million.
The figure being paid by the Chinese for 13 per cent of the City Football Group is the roughly the same as it cost owner Sheikh Mansour to buy the whole club in 2008.
The deal values City at £2bn, which is only marginally less than their great rivals at £2.05bn.
Barcelona make up the top three with a worth of £2.007bn while Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich are the only German team to feature in the top five with an estimated £1.5bn.
There is a huge gulf between Bayern in fifth and Premier League champions Chelsea in sixth, with the London club’s value coming in at £870m.
Chelsea, who are 16th in the league after a disastrous start to the 2015-16 season, recently announced a loss of more than £23m for the financial year ending in June.
The figures represent a swing of more than £40m, following profit of more than £18m for the previous 12 months.
Group turnover dropped only slightly to £314.3m, which hints at an increase in wages, while the change in profit is likely to be the result of a shift in transfer spending and an early exit from the Champions League.
Tottenham, Newcastle and West Ham also make the top 20 with the latter recording a worth of £196m ahead of their move to the Olympic Stadium next season – a move that will surely see the Hammers climb further up our table.
The estimated figures for the clubs’ value represent how much a club would cost to buy outright, and takes into account revenue, assets, fan bases and brand partnerships as well as investments and celebrity players.
Jacques de Cock from London School of Marketing believes the future is bright for football based marketing.
He said: ‘This is such a golden opportunity for brands as the target audience of footballers represents a very diverse and extensive range of joint interests that need to be satisfied. Interestingly, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are owned and controlled by their fans. Despite or maybe because of this they seem to be able to compete, if not out-compete other competitors who are owned by bigger faceless conglomerates.
‘Football remains the only real global sport with a passionate and faithful following. The European football clubs travel much better than US sports and the largest clubs have supporters in over 80 countries, making targeted campaigns in various regions a real possibility. The future is bright for football based marketing. Despite the recent events at FIFA the football brand itself has not been tarnished.’
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