Man United close gap on Real Madrid to be world's richest club

The Deloitte Football Money League, which assessed clubs on revenues generated during 2006/07 was dominated by English, Spanish and Italian sides.

For eight years Manchester United were at the top of the table until Real Madrid took their spot. This year United have gone from fourth position up to second.

While three British clubs dropped off the top 20 on the list (Manchester City, Rangers and West Ham), seven clubs in the top 20 were from the UK and four were in the top ten.

The authors of the Money League suggested that next year could be an even better year for English clubs, "2007/08 could see England providing half the Money League clubs," reports the BBC.

The figures used to determine revenue are income from ticket sales, merchandising and broadcasting contracts. They do not however include transfer revenues, nor does it determine which clubs are the most profitable.

In total the revenue for the top 20 clubs in the world (all of which are European) grew by 11 per cent to 2.5 billion in 2006/07, the highest growth since 2002/03.

The top ten richest clubs in 2006/07 by revenue as determined by Deloitte are as follows:

1) Real Madrid: 236.2 million

2) Man Utd: 212.1 million

3) Barcelona: 195.3 million

4) Chelsea: 190.5 million