Real Madrid overtake Manchester United to top the Forbes Most Valuable Sports Teams list

United slip one place to second as Real become the most valuable sports team in the world

Cristiano Ronaldo (GETTY IMAGES)

Manchester United have fallen behind Real Madrid in the latest Forbes list of the World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams.

United topped the tables last year, but they have fallen behind the Spanish club whose current value of $3.3 billion is the most of any sports team.

Barcelona have risen from eighth to third, before a flood of American franchises fill the Top 10, although Arsenal creep into the final position at a value of $1.33bn.

The National Football League dominates the charts holding 60% of the overall standings with 30 of the 32 NFL teams making up the top 50.

The Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, Washington Redskins and New York Giants all feature in the top 10, though baseball’s New York Yankees have beaten them all as they occupy fourth place.

The other 20 teams are made up of seven from football and baseball, while just three teams from the National Basketball Association have made the list.

The list is based on the valuations for the past year for the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, football, Nascar and Formula One championship teams, and the average sits at $1.24bn, a 16% increase on last year.

Just two years ago, there were no teams worth more than $2bn, but that figure is now surpassed by five teams, with both United and Real now valued at over $3bn to leave them in a class of their own.

Top 10:

Team	2013 Rank	2012 Rank	Sport	Owner	Current Value ($bil)
Real Madrid	1	2	Soccer	Club Members	$3.30
Manchester United	2	1	Soccer	Glazer family	3.17
Barcelona	3	8	Soccer	Club Members	2.6
New York Yankees	4	3 (tie)	Baseball	Steinbrenner Family	2.3
Dallas Cowboys	5	3 (tie)	Football	Jerry Jones	2.1
New England Patriots	6	6 (tie)	Football	Robert Kraft	1.64
Los Angeles Dodgers	7	6 (tie)	Baseball	Guggenheim Baseball	1.62
Washington Redskins	8	5	Football	Daniel Snyder	1.6
New York Giants	9	9	Football	John Mara, Steven Tisch	1.47
Arsenal	10	10	Soccer	Stanley Kroenke	1.33