Team becomes highest-earner in history

For the sixth consecutive year, Real Madrid tops the Deloitte Football Money League, and in doing so, became the highest-earning sports team ever, reports Business Insider. Despite not winning any trophies, the club's earnings jumped from $541 million for the 2008/09 season to $592 million for the 2009/10 season, enabling it to continue funding Cristiano Ronaldo's most extravagant purchases. Like exclusive yet unenforcable baby rights.

Barcelona came in right behind Real for the second straight year (even though the standings were the other way around in La Liga) and for the first time ever, the combined earnings of Deloitte's 20-club Money League topped $5.4 billion.

By comparison, the top earning NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, made $420 million according to Forbes and the top earning MLB team, the New York Yankees, made $441 million. That would only put them fifth and fourth, respectively, in Deloitte's list of football clubs.

The biggest chunk of Real Madrid's revenue came from its ongoing $1.4 billion TV rights deal, but it also makes nearly as much from numerous sponsorships and matchday earnings. And if there's one thing Real likes more than making money, it's spending it. Over the last decade, it's spent more than $1 billion on player transfers as it keeps breaking its own transfer records for individual players to fill out club president Florentino Perez's live-action fantasy team.

Here's the full Football Money League Top 20...

1. Real Madrid -- $592 million
2. Barcelona -- $537 million
3. Manchester United -- $472 million
4. Bayern Munich -- $436 million
5. Arsenal -- $370 million
6. Chelsea -- $345 million
7. AC Milan -- $318 million
8. Liverpool -- $308 million
9. Inter Milan -- $303 million
10. Juventus -- $277 million
11. Manchester City -- $206 million
12. Tottenham Hotspur -- $198 million
13. Hamburger SV -- $197 million
14. Lyon -- $197 million
15. Marseille -- $190 million
16. Schalke 04 -- $189 million
17. Atletico Madrid -- $168 million
18. Roma -- $166 million
19. Stuttgart -- $155 million
20. Aston Villa -- $148 million

Fun, right? Well, it's not so much when you look at how quickly those earnings disappear. As the Andersred Blog points out, just one of the seven English clubs on Deloitte's list turned a profit (Arsenal). Barcelona had to take out a loan to pay player wages last summer and Real's debt is in the hundreds of millions. So keep that in mind when imagining club executives diving into warehouse-sized safes full of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.

New squad rules a "disaster" for football, says Wenger

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger discarded his usual diplomacy when he dismissed the Premier League's new squad rules as "disastrous for football" on Friday.Skip related content

RELATED PHOTOS / VIDEOS

Arsenal's coach Arsene Wenger looks on during a news conference at Camp Nou stadium …MoreEnlarge photo

The rules introduced by the Premier League, adapted from UEFA's Champions League squad rules, state that clubs have to register a squad of no more than 25 players, which must include at least eight "home-grown" players, at the end of each transfer window.

"I believe it's a disastrous decision for football and for the players and I am quite amazed that the (players') union accepted that," the Frenchman said. "I believe it's also a very bad decision for the clubs."

As far as the Premier League is concerned, home-grown players do not have to be English but need to have been affiliated to the English FA or Wales FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday.

The idea is designed to increase the number of young "home-grown" players in England's top division.

Ironically, Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas, who has just won the World Cup with Spain, would qualify as a "home-grown" player because he joined Arsenal at 16 and is now 23. The new rules will not impact unduly on Arsenal's senior squad, as Wenger has at least eight players who qualify for the home grown rule.

Wenger though, whose teams in recent seasons have largely comprised overseas players, explained why he was against the move.

"I am not a big fan of it, because it means many players will be without clubs -- that's the first mathematical consequence of it," he told a news conference ahead of this weekend's pre-season Emirates Cup tournament.

"Secondly, it puts the clubs in a weak position most of the time in the transfer market because when you already have 25 players, when you buy a player, you have 26 and you have to get rid of one.

"So you have to integrate when you buy a player, how much it costs to get rid of a player."

Asked if it was better to have the new system rather than the richer clubs "stockpiling" players, Wenger replied: "It's always about negative thinking. The big clubs have 25 top players anyway, you will not stop that by this kind of decision.

"There are only two solutions. If the big clubs have already employed a player, he has to go to a smaller club.

"The smaller club pays more than its potential, or the bigger club pays part of the salary, so in both cases it's not satisfying."

The new rules apply only to Premier League matches, not European games or those in the FA Cup or League Cup.

(Reporting by Mike Collett, editing by Stephen Wood)

Aladdin Sodiq Blog Profiles: Gelson Fernandes

Gelson Fernandes (born 2 September 1986 in Praia, Cape Verde) is a Swiss footballer, who currently plays as a midfielder for Saint-Étienne and the Swiss national team.

Club career
Manchester City

Fernandes signed for Manchester City from Sion on 14 July 2007 for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around €6 million (£4.2 million), which would make his sale the second highest transfer in the history of the Swiss League. Following his signing, Sven-Göran Eriksson commented that he thought Fernandes was the "best young player in Switzerland." He made his debut in the 0–0 draw against Portsmouth.

He scored his first goal in a 2–0 victory against Newcastle United on 2 January 2008, after coming on as a substitute for Stephen Ireland. It took just 40 seconds for Fernandes and Kelvin Etuhu to combine for the former to finish from the edge of the box. Gelson scored his second goal in the 1–3 loss to Arsenal at the City of Manchester Stadium. Vedran Ćorluka took advantage of a Gaël Clichy defensive error, who slipped in a pass into the six-yard box for Gelson to tuck home. The goal was not enough to secure any points for Manchester City, but showed the City fans that he was also capable of having an eye for goal like fellow youth midfielder, Michael Johnson.

At the start of the 2008–09 season, Fernandes had his number changed from number 28 to number 19. The number 28 shirt was taken by Daniel Sturridge. He has since scored twice in the 2008–09 season with goals against Brighton & Hove Albion and the final goal in the 6–0 win against Portsmouth. Gelson made 59 appearances for City, scoring four times, but he was increasingly used as a substitute after Mark Hughes took over as manager.

Saint-Etienne

On 9 July 2009, Fernandes moved on trial to Saint-Étienne. He passed a medical on 9 July 2009 to complete a £2 million move to Saint-Étienne. He signed a two-year contract and moved on a undisclosed fee.

International career

Fernandes was captain of the Switzerland U-21 that played against the England U-21 side in their Euro 2007 qualifying match.

He made his first full international appearance for Switzerland against the Netherlands on 22 August 2007. He has since continued to be a regular for Switzerland, playing in their friendly defeat to England at Wembley in February 2008. He also played in all three of the Swiss side's Euro 2008 fixtures. On 28 March 2009, Fernandes scored his first goal for Switzerland, heading in a corner to seal a 2–0 win against Moldova. He scored his first World Cup goal for Switzerland against Spain on 16 June 2010, which Switzerland went on to win 1–0.

Personal life

Gelson Fernandes arrived in Switzerland with his mother at the age of five from the Cape Verde islands, the family settling in Sion.

According to former Manchester City teammate Micah Richards, he is fluent in five languages. The five languages are: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Although these are the most widely known languages that Fernandes speaks, it is also known that he can speak Portuguese due to it being the official language of his birthplace, Cape Verde. He is the cousin of Portuguese footballer Manuel Fernandes.

Honours

Sion

* Swiss Cup: 1

2006

Source: Wikipedia