Manchester City named the most valuable football brand in the world

The consulting company Brand Finance has released its annual football club valuation rating. In 2023, according to the compilers of the rating, Manchester City became the most expensive. The club’s brand is valued at €1.51 billion. Thus, the Manchester team threw Real Madrid off the podium, which led the Brand Finance rating for the previous four years.

Consulting company Brand Finance made public an annual ranking of the value of football clubs. The findings of the researchers can hardly be called unexpected.

Manchester City has been named the most valuable brand in world football. Pep Guardiola’s team is valued at €1.51 billion, up 13% from a year ago.

This is not surprising, since this season Manchester United are beyond praise. Manchester City already provided own title of champion of England, won FA Cup and is on the verge of a huge hat-trick. It will develop if Manchester on Saturday beat Inter in the Champions League final.

Recall that over the past four years, Brand Finance has recognized Real Madrid as the most valuable brand in world football. This time, the legendary Spanish brand was valued at only €1.46 billion, down 4% from a year ago. As a result, Madrid took only the second place in the Brand Finance ranking. It is noteworthy that the Brand Finance rating is based, as indicated on the company’s website, on a survey of 10 thousand people in “Europe, Brazil, China and the United States.” Given Manchester United’s recent victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, it’s no surprise that public opinion has pushed Guardiola’s men up.

Closed the pedestal “Barcelona”. The Catalan brand is valued at €1.4 billion, up 4% from a year ago. Supporting Barcelona’s assessment came from her victory in the Spanish Championship. The downgrading factor was the financial problems that the Catalan club still faces.

It should be noted that more than half of the places in the top 10 ranking compiled by Brand Finance are occupied by the clubs of the English Premier League.

The leadership of Manchester City has already been said. In fourth place is Manchester United (€1.361 billion and plus 9% compared to last year), in fifth place is Liverpool (€1.36 billion and an increase of 7%). Three more English teams finished in 8th-10th place, followed by PSG (€1.13bn) and Bayern Munich (€1.1bn). So, Arsenal is valued at €910 million, Tottenham at €900 million, Chelsea at €860 million.

However, Brand Finance retains another rating, which is not measured in money, but in some points, and indicates not the imaginary value of the brand, but its power in the perception of consumers. And in this ranking, the first is Real Madrid again. The second is Liverpool, whose history is much brighter than the one that Manchester City writes. The third is Barcelona. Manchester City are only fifth behind sworn neighbors Manchester United.

Alexander Petrov