Real Madrid, Barcelona lead soccer's revenue list

LONDON (AP) -- Spain has the two soccer clubs that earned the highest revenue during the 2005-06 season, with Real Madrid leading Barcelona in an independent report released Thursday.

Real Madrid ($373 million) kept its spot atop the "Football Money League," a report based on the 2005-06 season released by business advisory firm Deloitte.

Barcelona ($331 million) jumped four places to second, with Italy's Juventus ($321 million) in third. England's Manchester United ($310 million) -- which had been No. 1 for the first nine years of the report until it was overtaken by Real Madrid last year -- was fourth, largely because of a poor season.

Deloitte said it only used revenue as its ranking and not the wealth of individual club owners.

"The two (Spanish) clubs have had contrasting strategies, with Real focussing on driving commercial revenue from recruiting its 'galatico' players and Barcelona having a more balanced revenue profile," report editor Dan Jones said.

The global top 20 contains only European clubs: Italy's AC Milan was fifth at $305 million, followed by Chelsea ($282 million), Internazionale of Milan ($264 million), Bayern Munich ($262 million), Arsenal ($246 million) and Liverpool ($225 million).

The report used exchange rates of last June 30.

Updated on Wednesday, Feb 7, 2007 7:09 pm EST