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It is anUEFAYour browser does not support the element. excellent time to be an armchair football fan. Never have there been more matches to choose from. On January 29th the Champions League, a tournament for Europe’s best clubs, aired 18 matches all at once.It is an even better time to be a football club. The 20 highest earners brought in a record €11bn ($12bn) in combined revenues in the 2023-24 season, according to Deloitte, a professional-services firm. Top-of-the-table Real Madrid became the first club to rake in €1bn, up by over a quarter from the season before.Success on the field still matters hugely to a team’s income. Merely qualifying for the Champions League is lucrative (and this season’s new format, guaranteeing more games, makes it more so). Real were helped to their record haul by winning both Spain’s La Liga and the Champions League last year.Yet for teams’ accountants at least, winning is less important than it was. Famous clubs endure as brands even when they perform badly. Manchester United have remained in Deloitte’s top five earners despite years of disappointing performance. Clubs have become more adept at making money outside football. Many have fitted their stadiums with retractable pitches to host sports from boxing to American football without harming their grass. Taylor Swift toured stadiums from Liverpool’s Anfield to Real’s Santiago Bernabeu.But spare a thought, if no tears, for the game’s top players. Although their contracts are not public, reports suggest their pay may not be keeping pace with clubs’ revenues. Kylian Mbappé, Real’s highest-paid player, is said to earn around €45m a season, a tidy sum, but only about as much as Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly made at Real a decade ago. Erling Haaland of Manchester City, who in 2022-23 scored a record 36 goals in the English Premier League, recently signed a contract until 2034 worth an estimated £26m ($32m) a year. That’s less than Gareth Bale is thought to have made at Tottenham four seasons ago.As David Butler, a sports economist at University College Cork, notes, both stars are still young: Mr Mbappé is 26, Mr Haaland only 24. Mr Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, his great rival at Barcelona, were paid less at that age. And these days, long past their prime, they earn piles more. Mr Ronaldo is reportedly paid around $75m a year by his Saudi club for his services on the field; Mr Messi is earning handsomely in America.Their rivalry helped create personal brands that have lasted into their playing dotage. Today’s stars may not be so lucky. Still, their pay is far more than in days gone by. Gary Lineker, an English great of the 1980s, recently recalled his first contract. It paid £100 a week.
