New report reveals nine European ‘super clubs’

Steve Dede 19:32 - 12 January 2017

Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane has won the hearts and minds of Real's ego-driven dressing room which many of his predecessors, particularly Benitez failed to cope with

According to UEFA, these clubs have been able to monetise their huge supporter bases so well more than other clubsides.

A new report from UEFA has revealed that there is an elite group of nine European clubs that have gone way above other teams financially.

Premier League giants, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spanish super houses Real Madrid and Barcelona, Bundesliga side, Bayern Munich and France's Paris Saint-Germain have been called the ‘super clubs’ by UEFA in their new report.

These clubs have made around £100million each just from commercial deals over the past six years.

These commercial deals are mainly from club and shirt sponsors.

To put it in context, other 700 plus top division clubs have just below £1m.

This was revealed in the latest edition of UEFA's annual 'benchmarking' report which was published on Thursday, January 11.

President of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin is very concern about the dangers this gulf in financial strength could bring to the game.

'As the guardian of the game in Europe, UEFA must remain vigilant and take note of the less positive trends highlighted in the report, such as a return to high wage growth and the increasing concentration of sponsorship and commercial revenue among a handful of clubs,” Ceferin writes.

Financial strength plays a huge role in on-pitch successes and this is evident in the Champions League where these elite clubs have dominated the latter stages.

Despite the success of the Financial Fair Play (FFP) which prevents clubs from spending more than they earn, the disparity in financial strength still exists between these elite clubs and the lower sides.