Football and Fashion |

Manchester United may not have earned a place in the Champions League and will have to scrape to keep their Premier League title, but they still have been able to keep the lead as one of the most valuable clubs globally.

In this year’s Forbes Magazine list of the top twenty football teams, the Old Trafford club held onto top position with a value of £1.19bn, which is a two percent decrease from last year.

England landed seven clubs on the list, although the Premier League is known as the most indebted club league throughout Europe.

Showing up on the list was Arsenal in third, Liverpool in sixth place, Chelsea in ninth, Tottenham Hotspur in 12^th, and near the bottom in 19^th place is Manchester City.

The last team on the list was a surprise as Newcastle United made the list even though they are currently in relegation for the Championship.

Forbes business sports writer, Peter Schwartz, stated that Manchester United deserves a bit of praise for its continual resilience and its place as one of the largest global sporting brands.

Schwartz continued to say that the club has made itself one of the first class brands out of all world sporting brands with great marketing and new kit deals that have helped them continue to hold their status even in the face of the global recession.

Over the last season the twenty most valuable clubs together generated a total of £422m in operating income and combined revenues of £3.57b.

The Premier League clubs have agreed that they will extend the period for parachute payments an additional two years, to four years.

Although the proposal will need to be approved and voted on at their June Annual General Meeting, at the moment the concept is understood to have universal backing.

Chairman Lord Triesman of the Football Association and Richard Scudamore the chief executive of the Premier League offered their backing to the plan and it is expected to pass in June without a problem.

All sides will benefit from the parachute payment extension and help to reduce the need for wholesale budget cuts directly before the Championship takes place.

Co-owner of the West Ham club, David Gold, was able to offer his support at a Thursday meeting and stated that this will be good news for the future of English football.

Gold stated that he is delighted with the Premier League decision and that the clubs back it completely and that it is a great first step for clubs that are relegated.  He added that it will help the clubs that have been affected negatively by relegation and will also help all of the Football League straight down to the lower teams.

Additionally, he also revealed figures that make up the revised payment plan and claims that over the next four years clubs will get around £48m.  He stated that it will be based on a percentage plan from available television monies, out of which there is now another 25% to add on to the third and fourth years.

Even though English football has long been known as the richest club game in the world, this week the financial sheath was revealed showing that there is not as much as thought from the top Premier League, let alone the others.

It is expected that soon Sven Goran Eiksson will stop associating with the Nott’s football club.  The prospect comes in combination with news that Portsmouth may be falling into administration, and that there will be another takeover, which is thought to be only the first step towards the point when many clubs will start to collapse.

Of course, there is more to the rumours with Sir Alex Ferguson forced to deny last week that Manchester United is a financial crisis since deciding at the last moment not to sign Adem Ljajic for nine million pounds.  This is thought to be the result of the clubs debt to the Glazer family that totals up to about £70m.

Even with Ferguson’s claims, it will be hard to believe him until the money from the £80m sale of Ronaldo is actually spent by United.

United is not the only club in possibly in trouble, with Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez stating that the new priority of the club is to pay off their debt, which totals up to £300m.  In order to raise the money it is possible that Fernando Torres could be sold although Benitez has threatened to resign if this were to happen.

Even the most budget conscious clubs are worried as clubs such as the successful Everton announcing that it calculated it will have substantial losses at the end of the season.