Accountancy firm, Deloitte, published its 24th annual Football Money League today. The report (based on the 2019/20 financial year) ranks football clubs by turnover. For the first time, Liverpool cracked the top five. I present highlights and analysis in this thread. https://twitter.com/Deloitte/status/1353764580225413121

Liverpool moved up two places from last year's Money League, pipping the oil money pair of Man City and PSG to fifth place. Liverpool's turnover for 19/20 was £490m (€559m), an 8% reduction on the previous season's £533m.

The 8% reduction in turnover, largely due to the financial impact of Covid, was less than the average of the Money League's top 20 teams of 12%. Man United was amongst the worst affected, seeing its turnover reduce by 19% year-on-year.

Speaking of United, the revenue gap between them and Liverpool has closed considerably over recent years. In 2016/17, the gap was a massive £217m in United's favour (£581m vs. £364m). By 2019/20, it had reduced to just £19m (£509m vs. £490m).

Liverpool's £490m turnover was comprised of:
Broadcast: £204m
Commercial: £213.5m
Matchday: £72.5m

Broadcast revenue includes prize money for the Premier League and Champions League as well as domestic/other cup competitions (e.g. Club World Cup). Due to the Premier League being completed in the 20/21 financial year, some of last season's prize money wasn't recognised in 19/20

Commercial revenue actually increased in 19/20 by £27.6m. This was overwhelmingly fan-driven as opposed to the club securing a host of lucrative sponsorships. The bulk of the increase related to significant growth in earnings from the New Balance kit deal.

In 18/19, the New Balance deal earned Liverpool £64m off the back of 1.8m in kit sales. These were details confirmed by then-Chief Commercial Officer, Billy Hogan, during the NB-Liverpool court case over the kit deal that Liverpool awarded to Nike.

Kit sales in 19/20 were up 59% year-on-year (again, confirmed by Hogan in court) and this equates to 2.9m units sold. This means in the final year of the New Balance agreement, it would have raked in over £80m for the club (even more than Man United's adidas deal).

Matchday revenue, as expected, was down by £12m year-on-year due to four home games not taking place before the season was suspended in March (each home game rakes in approximately £3m).

These figures, despite the effects of Covid, are still strong. Costs incurred by clubs are not published in the Money League report, however, Liverpool will announce its 19/20 figures (and release their accounts) in just over a month.

The club will either announce a relatively minor loss or a small profit. One interesting thing to note is that, for the first time in many years, the club's wage bill is likely to exceed that of United. I will post a separate thread on the club's wage bill in the coming days.