The 20 Richest Clubs in World Football

Football is the highest grossing sport in the world, and as a result they have some of the richest and most wealthy clubs on the planet. Forbes annually puts out the list of the top clubs' financial results which is the basis for all the financial information enclosed in this article.

Germany's shareholder-based system for clubs sees them take prominence on this list as some of the best-ran, financially-sound businesses in football. However, it remains that the personally owned, and majority-stake owned clubs are the majority of the top clubs.

Three publicly owned teams made the top five, but it is an even split for the majority of the rest of the top 20. So let's get to the, "rat killin'," as legendary passed movie star John Wayne would say, and check out what clubs are the biggest financial monsters in the world.

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Germany Club Borussia Dortmund start off the rankings as the world 20th richest team. The current Bundesliga Champions have one of the largest stadiums in the world for football teams as Signal Iduna Park has a seating capacity of 80,500 allowing them to get very healthy revenues from ticket sales.

The owner and majority shareholder of the club is Morgan Stanley International Ltd. which is a London-based subsidiary of New York-based Morgan Stanley which controls $807,698,000,000 in assets world wide.

Dortmund's current value is $260 million U.S. dollars, and the 2010-2011 revenues for the club were $124 million. It is a publicly-traded team has an enterprise value (equity plus net debt) of 256 million euros.

The clubs' Golden Age was considered to be the 1990s when they won two league titles, two DFB-Supercups, the 1996-97 Champions League, 1992-93 UEFA Cup and the 1997 European Super Cup.

La Liga club Atletico Madrid comes in at 19th on the list of richest clubs in the world. The Spaniards are, in many cases, the second club in Madrid, but have always been considered the peoples club.

Their stadium, the Vicente Calderon, seats 55,000 people and though not the biggest house by far, they achieve high tickets sales and revenues thanks to the higher market of the Spanish Capital. However, next season they will likely increase there value by around 15 percent as they are due to move into the recently renovated Estadio La Peineta which holds 75,000.

They are owned by the Gil Family as the majority shareholders with team currently valued at $275 million dollars with a four-percent increase from last year, as their revenues topped out at $153 million.

Atletico's last La Liga title was in 1995-96, but their 2009-10 UEFA Cup title and 2010 European Super Cup title have seen them gain huge numbers as far as broadcasting revenues.

France makes their first appearance on the list with Olympique Marseille at 18th. The 2009-10 Ligue 1 Orange Champions failed to repeat this past season as they finished second to Lille.

Their owner and majority shareholder is Margarita Louis-Dreyfus and is the first female to be represented in the top 20 richest clubs in the world. The club plays in the 60,000 capacity Stade Velodrome that is one of the best atmospheres in the country.

Currently the club is valued at $277 million with a six-percent upturn this past fiscal year and revenues of $173 million. Recently, the public of Marseille have agreed to pay for an additional 7,000 seats to be added in time for 2016 Euro games that will also increase the team's revenue in the following years.

Werder Bremen hit the list at 17th place as the second German shareholder-owned team. The club ground, Weserstadion seats 32,000-plus and is one of the smaller on the list, but a strong following have them continuing to build value.

A net worth of $279 million has the club as a major value to the Bundesliga, but just like many other German clubs on here, they finished well below expectations as they crashed to 13th place last season in their domestic league.

Their revenues of $147 million continue to prove that smart player spending, and good cash flow management ensure that the team is profitable, despite having a much smaller stadium than many on the list.

VIB Stuttgart joins the list at No. 16 as the third German team already in the list. Long term sponsorship deals with Mercedes-Benz and Puma keep the Bundesliga team in high profile kits and whips, as well as a top class 50,000-plus seat stadium.

The club is valued at $281 million for its shareholders and recorded revenues of $141 million. Their 12th place finish in the German League will possibly hurt them in next season's overall valuation.

English club Manchester City enter the list as the first listed club from the Queen's nation. The middle eastern owned Citizens have added major sponsorship deals over the summer and will undoubtedly be much higher in this list next year.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has pumped in nearly $400 million dollars since he purchased the team with no end in sight.

The club is currently valued at $291 million and reported revenues of $153 million from last season. The addition of the FA Cup to their trophy cabinet will be motivation to keep pushing forward for the years to come as they jumped up 13 percent from the previous year.

Germany has its fourth club in the list at No. 14. Hamburg SV has been in the sponsorship business having increased their deal with Emirates Air, and also adding Imtech as the new stadium name rights holder.

The club is valued at $340 million with reported revenues of $179 million last season with a three-percent upturn in their overall.

They are one of several highly valued clubs that ended with a disappointing table position as eighth was the best they could make of it.

France's richest club, Olympique Lyonnais, joins the list at No. 13. Owner and majority shareholder Jean-Michel Aulas enjoys a club value of $358 million with a reported revenue of $179 million.

The club only finished third in Ligue 1 Orange last season, but they will be hoping to gain ground on Marseille and Lille next season. But, they could face potentially a much more difficult challenge from Paris St. Germain, whom are now another middle eastern purchase, and are beginning to build their own French version of Manchester City.

Club revenues were up eight percent, and have recently announced the ground breaking of a new 58,000 seat stadium that will replace the aging 41,800 seat Stade Gerland.

Shalke 04 ended the season in a dismal 14th position in the Bundesliga, but their run to the semifinals of the Champions League showcased a team that had nothing to lose, and played excellent football. If only they could have had that transfer over to the league.

The German club are the world's 12th richest club with a valuation of $377 million and the club owners enjoyed worldwide revenues of $171 million.

With a current debt reduction program going on at the club, they are raising their routes to earnings, but were still down two percent last year.

London's Tottenham Hotspur have been rising in prominence in the last few seasons, and some great displays in the Champions League this year no doubtingly raise peoples' attention to them.

Joseph Lewis has pushed the club and helped to grow their brand over the last seasons and, despite no major trophies save for the 2008 League Cup, Spurs are the 11th richest club in the world.

White Hart Lane only has a capacity of 36,500, but the club also enjoys the London market as do both Chelsea and Arsenal, and though they have the smallest stadium of the three, they keep it packed week after week.

The current valuation of the club is at $412 million and recorded revenues of $179 million. An 11 percent increase from 2009-10.

The first of the Milan Giants to grace the list are former Champions League Title holders Inter Milan. Massimo Moratti's team is worth $441 million and reported revenues of $275 million that are up seven percent from last year.

It is estimated that Moratti has pumped nearly $100 million of his own capital into the club in the last few years to fund operational costs. Their failure to repeat as Scudetto holders and Champions League greats will have no doubt disappointed the club, but they look to make another go of it come regular season in just a few weeks.

John W. Henry and Tom Werner took over Liverpool FC in October of last season, and inherit one of the most fan-loved organizations in the world. It is almost like the Boston Red Sox of the English Premier League, and the club's current stadium situation surrounding Anfield seems to resemble that of Fenway Park when they took it over in the early 2000s.

The team ranks ninth on the list despite a drop of 33 percent in their valuation to $552 million. Most of that drop and discrepancy is due to getting the club on its way out from under the debt that was incurred under George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

Worldwide revenues of $276 were reported for the club as they continue to spread their global brand.

The Old Lady Juventus is the second most wealthy Italian club as the Turin Giants join the list at No. 8. Their match-fixing scandal from several years ago does not seem to have hurt their value as much as many would have believed.

Their biggest hindrance is that they have the smallest stadium on the list, as they share the 27,500-seat Stadio Olimpico di Torino with fellow club Torino. Next season they should see a huge spike in revenue as they move into a newly built 41,000-seat stadium that was personally financed without help of the Turin municipality.

A four-percent drop in overall value saw them end the year being worth $628 million, and they enjoyed revenues of $251 million.

Roman Abramovich gets into the list at lucky No. 7, and are the third richest club based in England. Since his take over of the club, the Russian billionaire has pumped money into the London club like oil into his refineries.

The Barclays Premier League club have one of the smallest stadiums on the list with Stamford Bridge only holding 42,500, but the London market keeps their value per seat high.

Abramovich's team is currently valued at $658 million and are up two percent from last year. Their revenues from last season topped out at $313 million.

Italy's richest club and current Serie A Scudetto holders, AC Milan, are the richest Italian team, and the last of the their kind in the rankings at No. 6. Their rich history includes the second most European Championships at seven, and 18 Scudetto titles.

The club is owned by Italian billionaire Silvio Berlusconi, and is valued at $838 million. They share their 80,000-plus stadium, the San Siro, with local and eternal rivals Inter Milan previously listed.

Revenues for the past year were $289 million, up five percent from the previous year. However, they experienced a six percent total drop in match-day revenue as the economy had a huge part to play in their average attendance per home game dropping by nearly 15,000 per match.

Spain's second most profitable club, Barcelona, hits the charts at No. 5. The current La Liga and European Champions reported a loss of $9.2 million to drop their total value by two percent from last season.

The almost 100,000 seats in the Nou Camp helps to keep the cash rolling in during home matches, and the club members have to be proud of their voting decisions in the last years as they have watched their Blaugrana take the world by storm.

A valuation of $975 million makes them the most valuable team worth less than $1 billion, and their down revenue number was reported at $488 million.

Germany reach their highest point at fourth on the list with Bavarian-based Bayern Munich. The Central European country boasts a share of the highest number of clubs in the world's top 20 at a total of six.

The Bundesliga giants hold a record 22 league titles, 15 DFB-Pokal titles, six DFB Liga-Pokal titles, and are probably the most proud of their four UEFA European Championships.

Club members own the club and their 69,000-seat capacity stadium—the Allianz Arena stays sold out as their current value his ticked up to $1.048 billion, up by six percent from a season ago. The team also reported revenues of $396 million.

After a disappointing third-place finish last year in the Bundesliga, they will be hoping to rebound in 2011-12.

Arsene Wenger has run a tight ship for the Gunners since their move to the Emirates Stadium. However, as the club's value and revenues have risen in the last six years, their trophy cabinet has run dry.

The English club have been a perennial member of the top four since the creation of the English Premier League. American owner and majority shareholder E. Stanley Kroenke, also owner of the St. Louis Rams, Colorado Rapids, Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Mammoth, recently completed his takeover during the past season.

The club is valued at $1.192 billion and achieved $336 million in worldwide revenues. Their deal with the YES network, inked in late 2010, should help them to build their market in the United States, as they continue to try and catch up to a team to be named later.

Spanish giants Real Madrid are second only to one club as they join the list in second and are the third La Liga team in the top 20. The club is owned by its members and are in constant upheaval between chairmen whom almost always have conflicting interests.

Their stadium is the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, seats 80,400 fans and is a key part of their current valuation of $1.451 billion. They are up 10 percent from last season in a big jump, and are only second in the world to the New York Yankees in revenue production as they brought in $537 million.

Los Blancos are the most successful club in Spanish history as they hold 31 League titles, 18 Copa del Rey's, and their most lauded, nine European Championships.

American-owned Manchester United are the team of the past two decades in England as they have dominated the domestic league, winning 12 of the 19 titles since the creation of the Premier League. They have also expanded their brand to a global base of over 300 million fans.

England's biggest club is owned by the Glazer family, whom also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The club's stadium, Old Trafford, seats 76,000 and is nearly permanently sold out.

The club is currently valued at $1.864 billion, and is up two percent from last year with total revenues of $428 million and are growing by leaps and bounds each season.