Spanish giants Real Madrid have retained their position as the richest football club in the world — according to an annual survey issued by accountancy firm Deloitte.

from Deloitte UK

Welcome to the Deloitte Football Money League 2008 (register to download your report). This is the eleventh year of the publication, profiling the largest clubs in the world’s most popular sport. The Deloitte Football Money League is the most contemporary and reliable analysis of clubs’ relative financial performance and is released less than nine months after the end of last season, as soon as all the clubs’ revenue figures are available to us.  For the purposes of this publication, we look at the best publicly available measure of financial comparison: turnover from day to day football business operations.

Top 20 after the jump

This year Real Madrid retains its place at the top of the Money League, the club’s third season at the top, while Manchester United , whose turnover leapt by 33% retake second place, Barcelona consolidate their strong performance in recent seasons and complete the top three.

Arsenal’s move to the Emirates Stadium has transformed their revenues and they rise four places into the top five for the first time, joining United and Chelsea. This is the first time that any country has had three clubs in the Money League top five.

World’s wealthiest football clubs by revenue:

1. Real Madrid (Spain) 365.8m euros
2. Manchester United (England) 324.8m
3. Barcelona (Spain) 308.8m
4. Bayern Munich (Germany) 295.3m
5. Chelsea (England) 268.9m
6. Arsenal (England) 264.4m
7. Liverpool (England) 210.9m
8. AC Milan (Italy) 209.5m
9. Roma (Italy) 175.4m
10. Inter Milan (Italy) 172.9m
11. Juventus (Italy) 167.5m
12. Lyon (France) 155.7m
13. Schalke (Germany) 148.4m
14. Tottenham (England) 145m
15. Hamburg (Germany) 127.9m
16. Marseille (France) 126.8m
17. Newcastle (England) 125.6m
18. Stuttgart (Germany) 111.5m
19. Fenerbahce (Turkey) 111.3m
20. Manchester City (England) 104m