Barcelona tops soccer's Money League

Star striker Antoine Griezmann gave Barcelona the thumbs up when he joined last July and on Tuesday (January 14), he might be giving the club another for its finances.

Barcelona becoming the first to see its annual revenues - at 840 million euros, or 890 million dollars - break through the 800 million euros barrier.

That's according to Deloitte, which says overall revenues at the 20 leading clubs were up 11 per cent to close to 9.3 billion euros in the 2018-2019 season, and puts the Catalan side at the top of its Football Money League.

In getting there, it's elbowed Real Madrid into second place though its coach Zinedine Zidane may not be too unhappy: it still earnt nearly 760 million euros.

Manchester United remained in third spot and Bayern Munich in fourth.

Entering the top five - and pushing Manchester City out - was Paris St Germain, home to superstar Neymar - though once again the English Premier League's eye-watering television deals have put it in a dominant position - with eight clubs inside the top 20.

In Barcelona's case, though, Deloitte says its success has been in bringing merchandising and licensing activities in-house and in so doing, reducing reliance on broadcasting revenues.

The club now on course, Deloitte says, to its stated ambition: to become the first one billion euro Money League club in the years to come.