Manchester United - #1 in the World

The word is out: Manchester United is the world's richest sports franchise. The Red Devils' Premiereship season may have hit a stall and they may very well be nine points behind Arsenal, but Deloitte has pegged ManU as the numero uno money-earner. This is due to their massive gate and, in no small part, huge sales of a great many Manchester United soccer jerseys.

Deloitte's List of Big Buck Soccer Clubs (in million euros):

 1. Manchester United    251.4
 2. Juventus             218.3
 3. AC Milan             200.2
 4. Real Madrid          192.6
 5. Bayern Munich        162.7
 6. Inter Milan          162.4
 7. Arsenal              149.6
 8. Liverpool            149.4
 9. Newcastle            138.9
10. Chelsea              133.8
11. Roma                 132.4
12. Borussia Dortmund    124.0
13. Barcelona            123.4
14. Schalke 04           118.6
15. Tottenham             95.6
16. Leeds                 92.0
17. Lazio                 88.9
18. Celtic                87.0
19. Olympique Lyonnais    84.3
20. Valencia              80.5 

Being in the top twenty is a good indicator of whether a team is capable of selling lots of authentic soccer jerseys. Manchester United's kit is supplied by Nike, as is that of Juventus, Inter-Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Valencia. Adidas supplies kits to AC Milan, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Newcastle. The Chelsea soccer jersey is supplied by Umbro, while the Liverpool soccer jersey is supplied by Reebock. The Tottenham Hotspurs soccer jersey is supplied by Kappa.

Among the Italian Serie A teams, the home AC Milan soccer jersey, with its red and black stripes, is particularly handsome. The away Juventus soccer jersey, on the other hand, is puzzlingly pink.

No word on whether those snappy red and white Arsenal soccer jerseys are currently outselling those of ManU.