Barcelona open record gap over Real in Deloitte Money League

La Liga leaders Barcelona have chalked up a victory over rivals Real Madrid after establishing a record gap between first and second place in the latest Deloitte Football Money League.

Barcelona topped the 2018/2019 earnings table with 840.8 million euros ($937 million), a record 83.5 million euros ahead of Real (757.3 million euros), while Manchester United, the highest-placed British club in third, earned 711.5 million euros (?627.1 million) for 2018-19.

Reigning German champions Bayern Munich were fourth on 660.1 million euros.

Consulting firm Deloitte suggest United's grip on the number one status among English clubs is under serious threat next year from Premier League champions Manchester City and Champions League holders Liverpool.

Barcelona leading the pack is down to bringing merchandising and licensing activities in-house, according to Deloitte.

"Barca are a clear example of a club adapting to changing market conditions, reducing the reliance on broadcast revenue and focusing on growing revenues within its control," Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, told the Press Association news agency.

"The club's commercial operation generated 383.5m euros of revenue, which is more than the total revenue of the 12th-placed club in this year's Money League.

"With the club expecting further growth of 30 million euros in commercial revenues and total revenue of almost 880m euros in 2019-20, we expect them to retain the top spot in next year's edition."
- 'United under pressure' -
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"If you think about where we were 10 years ago, the idea that City would overhaul United in financial terms would have seemed far-fetched."