Liverpool has seen a £330m jump in the valuation of the club over the past 12 months.

US sports business website Sportico published its annual valuation report into the world’s biggest football teams this week, placing the Reds fourth on the global list behind Barcelona in third, Real Madrid in second, and Manchester United in first place.

Liverpool’s valuation was pegged at $5.11bn (£4.1bn), a rise of 8.8% year-on-year.



That sum was, however, some £860m less than what Manchester United were deemed to be worth, despite the lack of competitive success that the Old Trafford side have seen over the past decade.

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Also featuring in the top 10 of the list from the Premier League was Manchester City in sixth, who despite a treble win last year and the highest revenues of any of the 50 teams on the list had a valuation of $4.75bn (£3.8bn).

Arsenal (£3.13bn), Tottenham Hotspur (£2.79bn), and Chelsea (£2.78bn) occupied eighth, ninth, and tenth spots, respectively.

Sportico’s methodology was based upon on multiple factors, which included: historical sales, market (size, saturation, and interest by prospective owners), strength of brand, on-field performance (historical and recent), terms of facility lease, debt burden, and additional obligations, as well as expected future team and league economics.

Outside of the top 10 comes a significant drop of £1.36bn to Juventus, demonstrating the wealth gap that exists between the biggest 10 clubs and the rest.

The American MLS had 20 teams feature on the top 50 list, 11 more than the Premier League.

The reason for that was the nature of the North American sports ecosystem, which despite revenues dwarfed by Premier League teams has no relegation or promotion issues, greater cost controls through such things as salary caps, and fosters greater collaboration between ownership groups.

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group acquired the Reds back in October of 2010 for a sum of around £300m.

Using that valuation in comparison to the current valuation placed on the club using the Sportico methodology, FSG has seen a £3.8bn rise in the value of its initial investment, a 1,266% increase over almost 14 years of ownership.

Taking into account inflation, that current acquisition price would be around £446m, demonstrating the huge value increase in the Premier League product globally, driven significantly by the booming media rights market both domestically and internationally.


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