According to a report released by UEFA, Chelsea’s squad at the close of the 2024 financial year became the most expensive ever assembled in Europe in terms of transfer fees. The “European Club Finance and Investment Landscape” report said Chelsea spent €1.656 billion on combined transfer costs. This figure comfortably surpassed the value of Manchester United’s squad in 2023, which cost €1.42 billion to assemble, and the €1.33 billion spent by Real Madrid, which was the highest squad cost in 2020.
Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital acquired the club in 2022, Chelsea has signed 41 players. However, the west London club’s lavish spending has not translated into significant on-field success, as evidenced by a sixth-place finish in last season’s Premier League and a current standing at fifth.
The report, which analyzes all of Europe’s top divisions, revealed that the highest revenues in 2023 were recorded by Real Madrid (€1 073 million), Manchester City (€854 million), Paris St Germain (€808 million), Manchester United (€771 million) and Bayern Munich (€765 million). Within the Premier League, nine teams featured among the top-20 earning clubs, boasting an average revenue of €357 million and an approximate aggregate revenue of €7.15 billion. Spain’s LaLiga ranked second with revenues of €3.7 billion, followed by Germany’s Bundesliga (€3.6 billion), Italy’s Serie A (€2.9 billion) and France’s Ligue 1 (€2.4 billion) rounding out the top five.
The composition of the top 20 clubs has remained relatively consistent over the past decade, with every current top 20 club also appearing among the top 25 in 2014. English clubs reported just over €7.1 billion of revenue in 2023, yet the prominence of the top clubs drove the mean club revenue to €357 million—significantly higher than the median (10-11th) club revenue of €245 million. “This ‘typical’ median English club revenue has 60 per cent more revenue than the typical German club and three times the revenue of the typical club in Italy and Spain, principally due to the large TV revenue distributions enjoyed by all top division clubs in England,” the report said.
Across Europe, more than 700 top-division clubs generated a total revenue of €26.8 billion in 2023, with England’s 20 top-flight clubs reporting almost double the revenue (97 per cent more) than those in Spain and Germany, which represent the second and third highest leagues respectively. England and Germany also boast the largest attendance figures, reflected in their median gate revenues of €29.1 million and €23.7 million, respectively. Notably, Arsenal (€153 million), Manchester United (€129 million), Tottenham (€123 million) and Liverpool (€108 million) were among the eight European clubs that reported more than €100 million in gate revenue in 2023.
