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eal Madrid have held the top spot as the most valuable football club brand in the world for 2020 despite declining by 14%, according to the latest Brand Finance Football Annual report.

Closely followed in the rankings of the top 50 football clubs in the world for brand value by La Liga rivals, Barcelona, who have a brand value of $2.330 billion, Real Madrid have a brand value of $2.339 billion.

The report also identified the effect of COVID-19 on the world’s top 50 most valuable football clubs, revealing the total value of the top 50 clubs has dropped by $1.2 billion, or 3.7% from 2019.

Brand Finance managing director, Richard Haigh, said despite the immediate drop in value reported in this year’s report, the long-term damage to football’s economic structure has not been seen yet.

“Top-level football has been confronted with the largest existential threat since the Second World War,” Haigh said.

“Loss of income, coupled with health concerns about mass gatherings, have raised question marks about the future of the industry and the financial resilience of clubs across all levels.

“The full damage of the COVID-19 crisis has yet to unfold and it is not inconceivable there will be casualties in the form of club bankruptcies and changes in ownership,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the total value of the top 50 brands to drop for the first time in six years, largely due to the loss of three main revenue streams, ‘matchday’, ‘broadcasting’, and ‘commercial’.

Brand Finance also said the COVID-19 pandemic had a larger impact on smaller clubs and leagues, who are more reliant on matchday revenue in particular, reporting matchday revenue makes up 43% of total revenue in Scotland, compared to only 13% in England.

With the top two spots in the ranking going to Spain’s top-flight league, La Liga, England’s Premier League fills out a large amount of the top ten, with Manchester United ranking third with a brand value of $2.16 billion, Liverpool in fourth with a brand value of $2.08 billion, and Manchester City in fifth, with a value of $1.85 billion.

Interestingly, Liverpool managed to grow their brand value by 6% in 2020, after recently being named Premier League champions for the first time since 1990.

Across the other top football leagues, the ‘big five’ European leagues, La Liga, Premier League, Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1, and Italy’s Serie A, fill out the top spots.

In sixth, Bayern Munich from the Bundesliga are valued at $1.74 billion, followed by Ligue 1 champions, Paris Saint-Germain, with a value of $1.59 billion, Chelsea from the Premier League rank eighth, with Premier League rivals, Tottenham hotspur and Arsenal rounding out the top ten.

Just outside the top ten are Italy’s leading club, Juventus, valued at $1.02 billion, just $164 million behind tenth place Arsenal, who dropped in brand value by 19% due to COVID-19.

Unsurprisingly, the ‘big five’ European leagues dominate the entire top 50 rankings, with only four clubs in the top 50 from other leagues, with the Netherland’s Ajax ranking 27th, Portugal’s Benfica finishing 46th, Scotland’s Celtic in 48th, and Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg valued at 49th.