Congratulations to Real Madrid who top the Money League for the fifth consecutive year and become the first team in any sport to record revenues in excess of €400m.

FC Barcelona’s exceptional season on the pitch, winning the domestic double and the UEFA Champions League, helped drive the largest year on year absolute revenue growth of any Money League club with a €57m increase to €366m resulting in the club returning to second place in the list and completing a Spanish one-two.

All of this year’s top 20 clubs are from the ‘big five’ European leagues. The sustained depreciation of the Pound Sterling against the Euro continues to impair English clubs’ positions in the list. However, England retains seven clubs in this year’s top 20, the largest representation of any single country, with Germany contributing five clubs, Italy four, and France and Spain represented by two clubs.

Real Madrid and other large clubs can rely on continued fan loyalty, Deloitte says Real Madrid have topped the league table of the world's richest football clubs for the fifth straight year, according to Deloitte's sport unit.

It's Football Money League, based on data for season 2008/09, also says Real are the first global sports team to see annual revenues top 400m euros (£357m).

Real's arch-rivals Barcelona have taken second spot in the list, ahead of Manchester United who drop to third.
Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

WORLD'S WEALTHIEST CLUBS BY REVENUE
1) Real Madrid: 401.4m euros
2) Barcelona: 365.9m euros
3) Man Utd: 327m euros
4) Bayern Munich: 289.5m euros
5) Arsenal: 263m euros
6) Chelsea: 242.3m
7) Liverpool: 217m euros
8) Juventus: 202.3m euros
9) Inter Milan 196.5m euros
10) AC Milan: 196.5.m euros

Source: Deloitte: Based on 2008/09 revenue
Source: Bill Wilson, Business reporter, BBC News