The commercial power of Barcelona and Real Madrid has pushed Spain's La Liga to the top of the European merchandise and licensing revenue charts, according to a study by Sport+Markt and PR Marketing, reports Sport Business. The European Football Merchandising Report 2010 has revealed that La Liga surpassed England's Barclays Premier League to generate Eur190 million in the 2009-10 season. However, almost 80% of the total was generated by the country's two biggest clubs, Real and Barcelona, while England's revenues of Eur168 million were "distributed much more evenly".

The study found that the clubs in Europe's five top leagues generated turnover of Eur631 million in the 2009-10 campaign - a rise of 6% in comparison with the 2008 investigation. With merchandising income of Eur130 million, the German Bundesliga is ranked in third place, followed by Italy's Serie A (Eur77 million) and France's Ligue 1 (Eur67 million).

"The boom in European football merchandising is ongoing," said Dr Peter Rohlmann of PR Marketing. "However, it is primarily the less established leagues that can look forward to significant growth, as they are gradually identifying the importance of club merchandising in brand management."

Supplemented by the income of teams from the top divisions in the Holland, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, the top flight clubs from the continent's 10 biggest leagues generated total revenues of Eur727 million from merchandising and licensing.

The top-selling merchandise item at European clubs remains the team shirt, with 13.7 million sold during the 2009-10 season.

Sport+Markt senior consultant Andreas Ullmann added: "Jersey sales represent the core business of many clubs and are often responsible for around 50% of merchandising revenue."