Manchester City have overtaken Manchester United as the most valuable Premier League club, according to a new football finance study.

Manchester City were valued at £2.364bn for the 2017-18 season

City are valued at £2.364bn, up £385m, while United are valued £2.087bn, a drop of £376m blamed on “higher wages and lower profit”.

The top six account for almost three-quarters of the combined league value.

Burnley are seventh and described as the “most sensibly run club in the Premier League financially”.

Overall, the study by the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Sports Business Group, found the cumulative value of the league’s clubs is £14.7bn, a 1.6% drop.

The two Manchester clubs are the only two valued at more than £2bn in the study for the 2017-18 season.

Spurs (£1.837bn), Liverpool (£1.615bn) and Chelsea (£1.615bn) have seen big rises but Arsenal dropped to £1.368bn without Champions League football.

The top six clubs make up 74% (£10.9bn) of the overall total with Burnley almost £1bn behind Arsenal in sixth.

Premier League club valuations 2017-18

University of Liverpool Centre for Sports Business Group

To calculate their data, the university took into account revenue, profits, non-recurring costs, average profits on player sales over a three-year period, net assets, wage control and proportion of seats sold.

The research says City are top due to a combination of “higher revenue and lower wages”. They made £39m in profit from player sales at the beginning of last season, “removing some high earners from the wage bill”.

“The ownership model of Sheikh Mansour, which effectively means that the club is debt free, means that there are no loan interest costs and no dividends are paid to shareholders either,” the study added.

United came third, behind Real Madrid and Barcelona, in Deloitte’s list of the world’s richest clubs published in January – but that is just based on revenue.

Source – BBC News