Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona are among the six clubs with the highest company value in 2022-2023, according to the publication of the eighth edition of The European Champions Report, prepared by the data and analysis platform Football Benchmark, which only includes to the teams that were proclaimed champions of their respective leagues last season, which is why sports entities such as Real Madrid or Manchester United do not appear in the ranking.
The team led by Pep Guardiola, current winner of the treble and owner of the squad with the highest market value, is also a leader off the field. In this sense, the workforce, valued at 1,414 million euros, only represents 34.7% of the total value as a company, which shoots up to 4,073 million euros. City is owned by City Football Group, the conglomerate par excellence in world football. In addition to the Etihad Stadium set. In its portfolio there are clubs such as Girona (Spain), Palermo (Italy), New York City (United States), among others.
Ferran Soriano, general manager of the English entity, explained in his presentation within the framework of the Tech Spirit Barcelona 2023 congress, on December 12, that “the City Football Group has industrialized football”, being the key to the success of the holding company. The group is owned by three organizations: Abu Dhabi United Group, which controls 78%; Silver Lake, with 10%, and China Media Capital and Citic Group 12, which own 12% between them.
For its part, Bayern Munich, as a company, is positioned in fifth place in the ranking, with a value of 3,838 million euros. The Bavarian team is valued at 1,023 million euros, the fourth largest in Europe, which is equivalent to 26.7% of the value of the German club as a business unit. Bayern, whose 25% of the capital is owned by the German companies Allianz, Adidas and Audi, has the football team as its main economic and business driver. Commercial areas such as sponsorship, stadium exploitation and academia orbit around it. However, the club has a parallel eSports business, which operates independently of the football team, with its organizational and business structure. Although the video game team lost the last final of the eFootball Championship Pro, it is one of the leaders in European competitions.
Complete the podium
Meanwhile, Barcelona occupies sixth position in the classification, behind Bayern Munich, with a business valuation of 3,504 million euros. Its staff is valued at 1,005 million euros, 28.7% of the total value of the Catalan team. The club chaired by Joan Laporta not only has the sports area as a business unit, but is also joined by the Barça Foundation, Barça Studios, Barça Visión and Barça Licensing & Merchandising (BLM). In fact, the culé team used the minority sale of some of its companies to improve its financial situation, which had been diminished for years, and thus increase its ability to sign new players. However, not all operations went as the board had planned.
In mid-August, Barça announced that Libero Football Finance AG and private investment advisors Nipa Capital BV became new partners of Bridgeburg Invest, the trademark of Barça Vision. However, earlier this year, the club announced that it would take legal action against Libero for non-payment of the amount stipulated in his agreement. Likewise, the report also details the company value of clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), which occupies eighth position with 2,858 million euros, which contrasts with its staff valuation of 1,152 million euros, representing close to of half of the appraisal of the Parisian entity.
For its part, Benfica remains in 28th place, with a business value of 488 million euros, while its squad represents 85.5% of the total. Napoli is 17th in the ranking, reaching a company value of 706 million euros. Football Benchmark does not detail these figures for the other league champions, such as Galatasaray or Feyenoord, both from Turkey.
Source: Ambito
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