Spain's Real Madrid overtook the Red Devils for the first time in the prestigious Deloitte & Touche report yesterday, placing the club in the top spot of the "Money Football League".
Man United had topped the table for nine consecutive years, despite failing to win a title for two years in a row. Real Madrid's turnover increased by 17 percent to a staggering 328 million pounds in the 2004-2005 season, while United's club turnover was $293 million.
Italy's AC Milan came third with a performance of $279 million, followed by Juventus ($273 million). Lubbers Chelsea have climbed to fifth place with a turnover of $263 million.
"Real Madrid's increase in revenues has not come primarily from match ticket revenues, precisely like many English clubs, which derive their increase in revenues from television broadcasting fees, and we have seen at the same time that Italian clubs have had a substantial increase in their revenues in this area."
While Real Madrid finished just runner-up in last season's La Liga and made an early exit from the international leagues, it has still doubled its revenues over the past four years. Commercial revenues and sales of operating licenses contribute 45 percent of Real Madrid's market turnover, which is $62 million more than Manchester United and $74 million more than Barcelona.
Man Utd suffered a significant loss of revenue from television broadcasting fees as a result of their first-round exit in the knockout round of the Champions League.
But a spokesman for Deloitte argued that United remains the club in the world that has done the best job in the soccer industry and has the most potential to make a profit later. Three clubs that were in the top 20 in the previous year's statistics fell out of the rankings this year - Marseille, Aston Villa and Rangers - which were replaced by Everton, Lyon and Valencia. Only 13 clubs have been in the top 20 in the last nine years of the statistics - Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Manchester United, AC Milan, Roma, Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur.