Barcelona versus Arsenal in UCL is first '1billion euros' tie
The Champions League clash between Barcelona and Arsenal features two clubs with combined revenues of almost 1billion euros - the highest ever for a last-16 tie in the competition - according to new figures.
The Deloitte Football Money League, which profiles the highest-earning clubs in world football, puts the two clubs' combined revenue from 2014/15 at 996.3m euros (£769.9m).
Barcelona's revenue is 560.8m euros (£433.3m) and Arsenal's 435.5m euros (£336.5m), with the two sides meeting again in the Nou Camp on March 16 after Barca won the opening leg of their last-16 tie 2-0 after Lionel Messi scored twice at the Emirates.
The clubs in the last 16 have a total revenue of more than 4.3bn euros (£3.3billion).
The European tie with the second highest joint revenue takes place in the Europa League, where Manchester United take on Liverpool in a meeting featuring teams with a combined revenue of 911.3m euros (£704.2m).
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: "FC Barcelona and Arsenal generate the second and seventh highest revenues in world club football.
"Participating and progressing in the Champions League delivers significant revenue benefits in terms of UEFA distributions and matchday revenue, and success on the pitch can also translate into commercial uplifts.
"FC Barcelona's Champions League triumph last year resulted in UEFA distributions of 61m euros - an increase of 19.1m euros from the previous season. Similarly, Juventus' successful run to the final last season helped the club to achieve total revenue growth of 16 per cent."
Real Madrid are top of the Money League with revenue of 577m euros (£445.9m), but their opponents Roma are only 16th with 180.4m euros (£139.4m).
Arsenal v Barcelona and Roma v Real Madrid are two of four ties in the last 16 which have total combined revenues of more than 750m euros (£579.6m).
The other two are Paris St Germain (480.8m euros, £371.6m) v Chelsea (420m euros, £324.6m) - the Londoners are ranked eighth in the Money League - and Juventus (323.9m euros, £250.3m) v Bayern Munich (474m euros, £366.3m).
Manchester City are ranked sixth in the Money League with total revenue of 463.5m euros (£358.1m), but no figures were available for their opponents Dynamo Kiev.
