By Paul Nicholson
September 17 – Manchester United is the only European club with more than €1 billion of fixed assets, according to the latest article by Football Benchmark, the research arm of consultancy and accountancy specialists KPMG Sports. While no comparison is made with non-European clubs, it is pretty safe to assume Man Utd would top a world table.
Fixed assets are defined as players’ registrations (the cost of acquiring a player’s registration from another club), properties (land and buildings ie stadia and training grounds), and other fixed assets (other intangible assets e.g. licences, software, brands).
Man Utd’s €1.3 billion fixed asset valuation is made up €255 million of player registrations, €291 million in properties, €206 million in other fixed assets, and a massive €526 million (40% of the total) in goodwill which, according to company accounts “arose largely in relation to the Group’s acquisition of Manchester United Limited in 2005”.
Even without the goodwill Man Utd would still top the table as the graph shows. Real Madrid are second but the planned redevelopment of the Bernabeu stadium could boost their fixed asset value.
Manchester City with fixed assets worth approximately €690 million in 2013/14 are third, just €16 million less than Real Madrid. The club has invested heavily in developing the Etihad Campus, their new training ground and youth academy, (an overall investment of reportedly more than of €270 million) and could see them overtake Real Madrid once 2014/2015 financial results are released.
English clubs generally own their stadiums and it their value that has pushed three other clubs into the more than €400 million fixed asset bracket, all of them in London – Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs.
The largest Italian club Juventus with a value of EUR 430 million recorded in 2013/14, €10 million ahead of Inter Milan. Juventus owns their stadium and the assets are distributed amongst players’ registrations (28%), properties (29%) and other fixed assets (43%). In contrast Inter lease the San Siro, hence properties only account for 3% of the value of their fixed assets. Football Benchmark reports that nine out of the 20 Italian clubs in Serie A in 2013/14 did not record ownership of any type of real estate.
In Spain Atlético de Madrid with €400 million is surprisingly ahead of Barcelona (€360 million). This gap may grow in the short term as Atlético de Madrid with the construction of their new 70,000 capacity Estadio La Peineta.
In Germany it is no surprise that Bayern München is the biggest German club by value of fixed assets owned (€376 million). The Allianz Arena is fully controlled by the club and accounts for €231 million of that figure in their 2013/14 financial statements.
There are no French clubs has total fixed assets valued above €400 million, but Football Benchmark says that may change with several clubs benefitting from new stadium developments/renovations in preparation for UEFA EURO 2016.
See the Football Benchmark article at www.footballbenchmark.com
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