Catalan newspaper Sport reports that according to a study by Prime Time Sport, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, who are currently perched at the top of the ranking for investment on new players this summer, will also top the list for income revenues in 2010, if they manage meet their revenue forecasts.

The study, led by former FC Barcelona chief marketing officer, Esteve Calzada, on leading European clubs’ investment in new players and their corresponding income revenues, was presented at the ESADE business school on Wednesday.

The study showed that Real Madrid, in 2010, will continue to lead other Europeans club in terms of income revenues for the third consecutive year, with €422 million. Barcelona, with an income of €405 million, is expected to move up to second place, at the expense of Manchester United, who is affected by the devaluation of the pound sterling.

Barcelona was able to do that in large part due to the new contracts signed with Nike and Mediapro, and direct income as a result of their victory in the Champions League last year.

In terms of income source proportions, 39% of Real Madrid’s revenue comes from the club’s marketing operations, 28% is from its stadium operations and the remaining 33% is from television rights.

FC Barcelona, by contrast, got its main source of income from television rights (37. 2%), marketing (32.3%) and stadium operations (30.5%).

Real Madrid, a club that traditionally has a greater capacity to generate revenues from its marketing operation, got more income from the operations of the Santiago Bernabeu, despite having a capacity less than the Nou Camp, because it has more expensive seatings and more areas reserved for VIPs.

However, given its recent sporting successes, Barcelona has a higher box office (attendance) and has also been able to increase its television rights income by having been proclaimed last season’s Champions League winner.

Despite leading this ranking, Calzada believes that “none of the two clubs will be able to increase their income significantly (in the future) without making decisions of utmost importance,” given the depletion of traditional sources of revenue and the difficult global economic conditions.

In the case of Real Madrid, the study proposes an expansion of the Bernabeu, or the building a new stadium, while for FC Barcelona, it is recommended that it incorporate paid advertisement on the team’s jersey and by making an effort to recoup more of their investments in new signings with the sale of some their current players.

Indeed, Barcelona is one of the top three highest spending clubs in Europe this summer (€112 million), exceeded only to Manchester City (€140 million) and Real Madrid (€255 million), but have only managed to recoup €22 million from the sale of its players, just ahead of Juventus (€15 million) and Chelsea (€3 million).

Real Madrid, on the other hand, has traded players worth a total of €89 million – though they are making a loss on the sale of such players as Robben, Sneijder and Huntelaar, and has only been superceded in the European sales rankings by Manchester United (€103 million total, €94 million from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo’s alone).

Real Madrid and Barcelona have made six of the most expensive signings this summer: Cristiano Ronaldo (€94 million), Ibrahimovic (€66 million) and Kaka (€65 million) took the podium, while Benzema (€35 million) is the fifth, Xabi Alonso (€30 million) the seventh and Chygrynskiy (€25 million) the tenth.

However, Barcelona is compensating the amount they spend reinforcing the team by bringing in a greater number of homegrown players compared to the other Champions League teams, with 41.7%, followed by Arsenal with 39.6%, Manchester United (37.5%), Real Madrid (37.3%) and Bayern Munich (28.9%).