By Hanbing The 2024/25 Deloitte Football Money League report reveals that European powerhouses have displaced Premier League clubs from the top four for the first time. Not only that, but Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain, occupying these top spots, have each broken their own revenue records while expanding their dominance over other teams in their leagues. Compared to the "group-based" model in the Premier League, the wealth gap in Europe’s big four leagues is growing larger due to these clubs’ monopolization of on-field success and diversified off-field business advantages.

The Premier League distributes TV broadcast revenue and overseas market income relatively evenly among clubs. In contrast, the "Matthew Effect" of the European big four leagues—where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer—has not fundamentally improved despite changes in broadcast revenue sharing ratios. Instead, it has intensified due to the top clubs’ diversified revenue streams and natural advantages in stadium capacity. Correspondingly, the trophy races within these leagues have become increasingly predictable.

European Leagues: The "Big Four" Game

In the 2024/25 season, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain led the Deloitte Football Money League for the first time. Real Madrid recorded revenues of €1.161 billion last season, continuing to set the global benchmark for club income. Although matchday revenue fell by €15 million due to lower sales of personal seat licenses, increases in FIFA Club World Cup participation, broadcast, and commercial income offset this decline.

Real Madrid’s commercial revenue surged from €482 million to €594 million, a net increase of €112 million. This commercial income alone would place them 10th in the Deloitte Money League, surpassing traditional giants like Chelsea, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, AC Milan, and Juventus in total season revenue. Adidas provides €120 million annually for kit sponsorship, Emirates pays €70 million for front-of-shirt advertising, and HP contributes €70 million for sleeve sponsorship, totaling €260 million per year from kit deals alone.

Real Madrid truly leads the way with non-matchday stadium revenue. Last season, Bernabéu’s income from stadium tours (€52.6 million), major events and concerts (€15.4 million), and catering (€10.3 million) totaled €78.3 million. Combined with matchday revenue (€233 million), Bernabéu generated over €300 million. In terms of diversified stadium marketing, Real Madrid stands at the forefront in Europe.

Barcelona, despite playing at the smaller Montjuïc stadium last season, still generated €210 million in matchday revenue. Their commercial income reached €522 million, second only to Real Madrid. Paris Saint-Germain’s Parc des Princes, with a capacity of just 48,000, earned €177 million in matchday revenue, slightly below Arsenal (€183 million), Manchester United (€191 million), Barcelona (€210 million), and Real Madrid (€233 million). PSG’s matchday revenue per seat ranks highest, surpassing Bayern’s Allianz Arena (capacity 75,000, €147 million) and other large-capacity clubs like Tottenham, Liverpool, and Manchester City.

More importantly, the four giants’ seasonal revenues lead their leagues by a wide margin. Atlético Madrid, third in La Liga with €455 million, earns only 46.6% of Barcelona’s revenue and 39.1% of Real Madrid’s, while none of the other 17 La Liga clubs exceed €150 million. In the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund’s €531 million is just 61.7% of Bayern’s, and Stuttgart’s €296 million is only 34.4%, with the combined revenue of these two giants still less than Bayern alone. In Ligue 1, Marseille and Lyon, previously in the top 20, fell off the list; Marseille ranked 30th last season with €189 million, only 22.5% of PSG’s revenue—less than a quarter. PSG’s seasonal revenue surpasses the combined total of Marseille, Lyon, Monaco, Lille, and Nice, dominating French football completely.

The gap continues to widen

When European leagues fully reopened stadium capacities in the 2022/23 season, the gap between the big four and others was not as pronounced. Barcelona and Real Madrid’s seasonal revenue exceeded Atlético Madrid’s by €430 million and €470 million respectively, which expanded to €520 million and €700 million last season. PSG’s revenue advantage over Marseille grew from €543 million to €648 million. The Italian Serie A northern trio’s dominance was less extreme: Inter Milan led with €538 million, Milan and Juventus were around €410 million, while fourth-placed Roma dropped sharply to €200 million. In 2022/23, the northern trio’s revenues ranged between €380 million and €430 million, and Napoli, fourth, earned about two-thirds of Inter’s €268 million. Only Bayern’s lead over Borussia Dortmund grew moderately by nearly €10 million.

Even more frustratingly, the European big four’s monopoly is set to widen further, with few prospects for challengers to close the gap. Real Madrid is about to negotiate a renewal with Emirates, raising the sponsorship fee from €70 million to €100 million annually. Once the Nou Camp renovation is complete, stadium naming rights fees will jump from €5 million to €20 million per year. Real Madrid aims to boost stadium revenue from €300 million to €400 million this season by hosting more concerts and large-scale events. Similarly, after the Nou Camp upgrade, VIP seats and boxes will significantly increase matchday income, not to mention Real Madrid’s substantial non-matchday stadium revenue streams.

Although Atlético Madrid is now controlled by the American Apollo consortium, its sponsorship revenue pales compared to Real Madrid and Barcelona. Nike’s kit sponsorship doubled but only reached €30 million annually—just a quarter of what Nike pays Barcelona. Riyadh Air’s front-shirt sponsorship of €40 million is half that of Real Madrid and Barcelona, with the gap expected to widen. Atlético signed 24 commercial deals last season, increasing revenue by 22%, but the total of €156 million is less than a quarter of Real Madrid’s. Even with Apollo’s continued investment in Atlético’s sports city project, the club is already lagging behind in commercializing its infrastructure.

In Italy, the new stadium for AC Milan will continue to give the Milan clubs a significant commercial and matchday revenue advantage over rivals like Roma and Napoli, whose stadiums are less modern. In France, whether PSG expands Parc des Princes or builds a new large-capacity stadium, its league dominance could potentially account for half of Ligue 1’s total revenue. The future trend in Europe’s big four leagues is ongoing "trustification," where a few elite clubs take the lion’s share of the football industry’s income—a pattern unlikely to be reversed.