Top 10 most expensive football clubs in the world

It is hardly surprising that football is the most popular sport in the world. More than 4 billion fans live a football life, attend matches, watch the life of their favorite team on the Internet, and are members of fan clubs. This sport is most common in European countries, where it can no longer be called just a sports game, but a way of life for many. The most significant event in sports life is the World Cup. Matches gather a record number of spectators, and ticket prices are sometimes obscenely high.

With such a hype, the game, for 2019, of course, has the largest prize pool, the largest television contracts for broadcasting matches, the most expensive sponsorship contracts with famous brands and the most expensive football clubs in the world.

10 Tottenham Hotspur (England), annual income 355 million euros

The club was founded in 1882. His first players were school students who were fond of cricket, and took up football in their spare time when the cricket season ended. The first name “Hotspur” the team received in honor of Shakespeare’s hero Sir Henry Percy, nicknamed Hotspur, which meant quick-tempered. But by 1884, the name was supplemented and to this day it sounds like Tottenham Hotspur.

Until the middle of the XNUMXth century, the team’s position in the football league was unstable, as a result, it went down to the third division.

A new upsurge and breakthrough occurred in 1949, when Arthur Rowa became the team’s coach. It was he who invented the tactics of the game “hit and run.” The team’s game was based on passing and moving to a new position to receive the next ball. The opponents were not ready for this style of play, and this tactic brought the club to the big leagues. In 1950 “Tottenham Hotspur“- the champion of England.

In 1958, the new coach Bill Nicholson is reinforced by Scottish players, the strongest player of the time, Jimmy Greaves, moves to the club. With him in 1961 Tottenham won the English championship.

1973 was marked for Tottenham Hotspur (England) by reaching the UEFA final stage, which was remembered by the fans not only for the loss of the team, but also for the riots from the fans. More than 200 supporters of the Dutch rival were injured.

In the 1978/1979 season, the club distinguished itself with a well-known acquisition, two world champions were bought into its composition: Villa and Ardiles.

In 1984 the team won the UEFA Cup. After this victory, there was some decline. From 1992 to 2001, the team did not win prizes in the Premier League. At the beginning of 2008 the club managed to hold the League Cup again. After 11 years of failure, in 2010 the team was rewarded with a victory in the Premier League. The 2019 Premier League placed the club from Tottenham in 4th position.

9. Juventus (Italy), annual income 405,7 million euros

The Italian club was founded on the basis of a school team in 1897 in Turin. “Juventus“- the most titled and oldest football club in Italy. In the 20s, the club was owned by the Italian Agnelli family. In the post-war period, the “magic trio” appeared in the team – John Charles, Giampiero Boniperti, Omar Sivori.

In four years since 1958, the team won the championship three times in a row, Sivori received the Golden Ball award, and Boniperti was recognized as the club’s top scorer with 182 goals.

In 1985, the Juventus club became the first champion of all UEFA competitions. However, this year was also remembered for the tragedy in the Champions League. 39 Juventus fans died in the final against Liverpool. Over the next 9 years, due to the constant change of composition, the team was only able to receive the UEFA Cup 2 times.

In 1999, Juve was recognized as the only club to win cups of various tournaments. According to FIFA, this club firmly occupies the 7th position among the world’s best football clubs.

A loud transfer in the history of the football world took place in 2018: Cristiano Ronaldo moved to the Juventus club.

In the entire football history, the club has won 38 titles, with 5 in a row in 1931-1935, 8 in a row in 2012-2019, which became an absolute record in football. In various Italian championships, Juventus have won 58 cups, and this is also an undisputed country record.

According to sports polls, the football team from Turin has more than 130 million fans.

8. Liverpool (England), team income per year 424,2 million euros

The football club dates back to 1892. This year, the owner of the Anfield stadium, John Houlding, was left without a football team (Everton, who had previously trained at his stadium, left the stadium). Therefore, he founded a new football team, which was called “Liverpool“(England). Both teams compete with each other all the time. Matches between them gather a full house and are called the Merseysite derby.

The best years in the history of the club are the 70s and 80s of the XX century. During this period, the club won 11 league titles and 7 European awards.

In general, in the entire history of Liverpool has won the Euro Cup 13 times. This is the third result among football clubs after Real Madrid and Milan. In 1985, after the infamous final with Juventus and the death of Italian fans, Liverpool received a 10-year ban from the Euroleague, later reduced to 6 years.

In 2019, Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League. The club holds such records as a six-time UEFA League champion, 4 EUFA Super Cups, 3 UEFA Cup titles, 8 wins in the English Football League.

7. Chelsea (England), annual income 428 million euros

ClubЧелси» was founded in 1905. During the first 50 years of its existence, the club had no achievements and won the league title for the first time in the 1954/1955 season.

By the 60s, coach Tommy Doherty had significantly changed the composition of the club to younger players and eradicated the name “Pensioners” that had been assigned to the team. Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1970 and won their first European UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971.

In the early 80s, due to the reconstruction of the stadium, the team got into debt, so the club was forced to sell off its leading players and fly out to the second division. But this did not help, and in the end the stadium “Stamford Bridge” was sold. It wasn’t until 1992 that the club managed to get their stadium back and continue training there.

In the 1993/1994 season, Chelsea managed to reach the final of the FA Cup. The team finally had money, and the coach started buying strong players again.

In 2003, the Russian businessman R. Abramovich became the owner of the club, who began to change the team’s coaches and buy leading players. In 2009, with the help of the coach of the Russian national team, Chelsea won the FA Cup. In 2019, the London club won the Europa League Cup.

6. Arsenal London (England), team income 487,6 million euros

The football club was founded in 1886, the team consisted of workers from an artillery factory. The club has won the FA Cup 13 times and the FA Cup 13 times.

Since 1919, the team has played only in the top division of England. The transition to this division took place on the basis of a vote of the members of the League, so “Arsenalbypassed Tottenham, and a long-term rivalry began between the teams. The team was able to win its first “golden double” in the 1970/1971 season. And in the 1992/1993 season, Arsenal was able to take the FA Cup and the League Cup for the first time.

In 1996, an unknown foreigner Arsene Wegner was appointed as the team’s coach. With him, Arsenal began to rapidly change history: a new stadium was built for the club, players were bought, the team began to use attacking tactics in the game, and the matches became lively and interesting.

In the 2003/2004 season, the team had an unbeaten streak of 49 matches and set a new record. From 2006 to 2014 there was a lull, the team did not win a single title. After 22 years in 2018, Wagner stepped down as manager, the best coach in the history of the club.

5. Manchester City (England), 527,7 million euros

The club began its history in 1880. It is noteworthy that the club was founded by a woman, Anna Connel. Helping her priest father, she tried to instill virtues in society and eradicate vices, so she gathered cricket and football sports teams to distract the poor from alcoholism.

The club has changed its name and stadium three times in its history. Until the middle of the 20th century, Manchester did not show much success. But the second half and, especially, the 60s and 70s began to flourish. The club has won 4 FA Cups, 3 FA Super Cups, 5 Football League Cups, two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. However, in the 90s the club fell into the lower division and reasserted itself only in 2002 with its return to the Premier League.

In 2007 “Manchester City”was bought by a Thai family, but already in 2008 the football club was sold to Sheikh Mansour, the owner of the UAE company Abu Dhabi United Group. The company allocated investments to acquire new players, this move allowed the team to become the champion of England again, the owner of the FA Cup, and snatch the Super Cup from Chelsea.

4. Bavaria (Germany), income per year 587,8 million euros

The club was formed in Munich in 1900. The location of the football club next to the University of Munich has made football popular among students, so the players in the team “Bavariawas always sufficient. The club had several dozen full-fledged teams with adult players, as well as teams of boys and children.

The first successes appeared in the team at a time when W. Townley was its coach. This man taught the team how to play fast combinations. As a result, in 1923 the club celebrated its victory in the German championship. There were ups and downs in the following years. In 1974 the team won the European Championship Cup.

For many years, the Munich club has been a contender for victory in all international tournaments. According to FIFA, the club is in 3rd place among the best clubs in Europe of the 20th century.

Bayern is the most titled team in Germany. The club won 16 German Cups, 23 league cups, 3 Champions League Cups, the UEFA Cup and Super Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup. Bayern players have been awarded the Ballon d’Or and the Golden Boots.

3. Barcelona (Spain), annual income 648,3 million euros

The most titled football club in Spain was founded in 1899 from the inhabitants of Catalonia, and an interesting fact is that players were recruited for the club by an ad in a newspaper.

According to FIFA, Barcelona is ranked 4th among the best football clubs of the 20th century. The club has 71 trophies received in its country, including 30 Spanish Cups, 26 titles of the champion of their country, 13 national Super Cups, 2 Spanish League Cups. In addition, the collection of the football club has 20 world and European titles.

Barcelona for a long time did not have any company logos on its uniform, only in 2006 this tradition was violated, and the emblem of the UNICEF charity organization appeared on the shirts of the Spanish club, and it was not she who paid for this placement, but, on the contrary, the football club paid for opportunity to wear an emblem.

Later, taking into account the expensive transfers necessary for the team, the club needed investments, as a result, sponsors’ logos appeared on the Catalans’ uniforms.

The year 2009 was unique in the history of the club, it was in this year that they won victories in all tournaments and received the Spanish Cup and Super Cup, the club won the Spanish Championship, became the owner of the UEFA Super Cup, took the lead in the UEFA Champions League and in the Club World Cup. The team performs the “golden hat-trick”, which they manage to repeat again in 2015. Barcelona is the only team in European football to win two trebles.

2. Real Madrid (Spain), total revenue for the year 674,6 million euros

The year of foundation of the football club is considered to be 1896, in which the first team called “Sky Football” was born. But the official founding day of the club was March 6, 1902, when the Madrid Football Club was formed. In 1920, the King of Spain granted the Madrid football club the title of Royal, which is how the word Real appeared in the name of the club.

The heyday came in the middle of the 20th century, and for 15 years the Real Madrid team was a regular participant in European football tournaments, became the champion of their country many times, or won the Champions Cup. Only in 1970 she did not become a member of the European tournament for the first time. Real Madrid have won the Spanish Championship 33 times.

In the 2011/2012 season, Real Madrid set a record by scoring 100 points in a season, thus beating Barcelona, ​​winning 32 matches and scoring a total of 121 goals. According to FIFA, this is the best football club of the 20th century.

«Real Madrid» is a football club owned by fans, it is a non-profit sports association and exists at the expense of membership fees. The president of the Real Madrid club is chosen by voting. The team receives income from the sale of tickets and club merchandise, payments from television.

1. Manchester United (England), annual income of the club 676,3 million euros

Football Club of EnglandManchester Unitedwas founded in 1878 with the original name Newton Heath. The team consisted of railway workers from the city of Manchester. In 1902, the name of the team changed to the modern one. Until 1945, the participation of Manchester in tournaments enjoyed varying success, and only with the arrival of coach M. Busby did the club become leaders in their country and Europe.

Manchester United (England) is one of the most popular clubs in the world. The club has about 659 million fans, and fan clubs are located in 57 countries around the world.

In 1991, the club placed its shares on the London Stock Exchange, which attracted significant capital for its development.

The number of titles allows us to call Manchester the most successful football club in England. He owns 20 league titles and 12 Cups of the country, in addition to this, the club became a three-time winner of the Champions League Cup. During the period 1986-2013, the club’s collection of awards increased by another 38 trophies won.

1999 was a significant year for the club, Manchester became the winner in three tournaments at once: the FA Cup, the national championship and the Champions League, plus it won the Intercontinental Cup. For such results, the club’s coach was awarded the high title of “sir”.

Manchester United are in the history of the Champions League for the longest unbeaten streak of 25 matches in a row.