May 16 – Real Madrid have returned to the top of world football as the most valuable football club brand globally, having retaken the title from Manchester United, according to the latest report from brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance.
Barcelona are in third spot in terms of brand value, followed by Bayern Munich and then Manchester City, who head Liverpool.
Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur make up six of the top 10 clubs with PSG trading places with Arsenal to go eight in the ranking. The most notable absentee from the top 10 is Italy’s Juventus.
Looking at the top 50 ranking the dominance of the Premier League is evident with 17 clubs making up 43% of total brand value, point out the report authors. They also highlight that the Bundesliga follows closely behind the Premier League with 13 clubs in the top 50, but collectively their brand value ranks behind LaLiga.
This is in large part a result of the comparatively huge brand values attribute to the top six clubs who all registered brand values over €1.1 billion – Real Madrid showed a 26% growth to €1.64 billion. Compare this to 10th placed Spurs whose brand value also grew by over 20% but was still only half the value of Real Nadrid at £758 million.
Bryn Anderson, Director at Brand Finance, said: “Real Madrid have shown this year who truly reigns supreme in the world of football. They triumph not only as the most valuable and strongest brand but their enterprise value and stadium are also ranked second to none. The most successful club in the history of European football is finally reaping the benefits of decades of spectacular on- and off-pitch performance.”
Interestingly the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, due to undergo a €400 million refurb, tops Brand Finance’s Venue Performance Rating.
Manchester United’s brand declined for the first time since 2016, from €1.562 billion last year to €1.472 billion (a 6% drop) in 2019.
“Manchester United have disappointed in recent years on the playing field both in the Premier League and in the UEFA Champions League. Public perceptions of the brand have deteriorated as Manchester United ranks only 18th among the sample of the world’s top clubs with regards to “playing exciting football”, as revealed by Brand Finance’s original fan research,” says the report.
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