After a month of dominating headlines due to the highly anticipated World Cup, football has once again reinforced its reputation as the planets most popular game, this time in the financial stakes. 

From the top 10 richest sport franchises in the world, as named by Forbes, four of them come from the beautiful game- including the top three. The other prominent sports represented are American Football (NFL) and Major League Baseball, while the NBA has a wider presence in the top 50. 

European football clubs continue to dominate the rich list of world sport teams with Champions League winners Real Madrid grabbing the top spot. According to the annual Forbes list, the Spanish side are worth $3.44bn (£1.75bn) after growing 4% in the past year.

They have reached this milestone despite a disappointing third place finish in La Liga- beaten by local rivals Atletico Madrid- and huge transfers including the record breaking £85.3m transfer of Gareth Bale from Tottenham last September. 

Real Madrid are closey followed by Lionel Messi’s Barcelona who finished second in the Forbes table with a value of $3.2bn, with Manchester United further away in third- valued at $2.81bn. 

However, the Old Trafford club, who begin the 2014/15 season without the prospect of Champions League football after a disappointing campaign under the now-sacked David Moyes, stand a chance of wiping out their debts from next year when their record kit deal with Adidas kicks in. The contract- worth £750m over 10 years- is one of a number of lucrative sponsor agreements aimed at boosting the clubs revenue. 

Of the other franchises in the top 10, Bayern Munich keep the feel good factor in German football alive with their US$1.85b (NZ$2.15b) putting them seventh on the list. US baseball side the New York Yankees, worth $2.5bn, and NFL side the Dallas Cowboys, with a  value of $2.3bn, helped by a $500m stadium naming deal with AT&T, also appear on the list. 

Forbes has said that the value of top sports sides has been boosted by “exploding” TV rights fees alongside massive stock market wealth. The report added that "as expensive as prime US sports properties have become, they can’t match the top European soccer clubs when it comes to value and global reach.” Social media appears to of had a key impact in terms of value to a team and “the contrast between elite soccer clubs and top American teams is vast.” When it comes to Facebook, Barcelona (69 million), Real (67 million) and United (53 million) have the three biggest followings among sports teams which is perhaps why they dominate the rich list's top spots. 

Forbes has valued teams in the major sports leagues since 1998, evaluating enterprise values (equity plus debt) based on current venue deals.