You may be happy, but where's the success, Ken? (BenRadford/Allsport)

While English football pats itself heartily on the back and claims it is as successful off the pitch as it is on it, some clubs are obviously on a knife edge, while on the pitch English success is only skin deep.

Because if you look further into the rich list and compare and contrast it with ESPN's top 20 clubs in the world, there is no comparison - English football is only as good as the paper it is written on. And any reasonably intelligent commentator on the English game will tell you that most of that paper rests in the hands of the money lenders.

Although the birth of TV may have bought astonishing wealth to English clubs, they continue to be run in the main by single benefactors with little hope of sustaining any extended period of recession within the game.

Turnover may be high in England, but most of that money disappears into the coffers of others. While the fans are bled dry and the sponsors throw money at the game, most clubs have little or no profit to show for it.

You don't have to look any further than Chelsea to see that the greed disease that English football picked up in the eighties is threatening to spit out the core of the national game as other countries continue to steal a march on us.

Ken Bates is a desperate man now. While he finds scheme after scheme to stave off the bailiffs (this time it's £10m executive boxes), faltering business interests off the pitch have meant that the club must achieve success in Europe to satisfy a tightly balance budget.

They may be the fourth richest club in the world, but tell me, if they are so rich why have they announced a loss two years running. Manchester United are a different proposition, but even they too have questioned whether they can afford to splash out money on big signings in the light of tightly balanced books.

ESPN's World Club Top 20
Nos	Club	Country
1 (1)	Man Utd	England
2 (-)	Boca Jnrs	Argentina
3 (16)	AS Roma	Italy
4 (-)	Deportivo	Spain
5 (-)	Valencia	Spain
6 (3)	R Madrid	Spain
7 (-)	River Plate	Argentina
8 (20)	Arsenal	England
9 (-)	Feyenoord	Holland
10 (2)	B Munich	Germany
11 (8)	Lazio	Italy
12 (13)	Parma	Italy
13 (-)	Hertha Berlin	Germany
14 (-)	B L'kusen	Germany
15 (5)	Juventus	Italy
16 (-)	PSV E'hoven	Holland
17 (-)	V da Gama	Brazil
18 (-)	Cruzeiro	Brazil
19 (7)	AC Milan	Italy
20 (20)	Celtic	Scotland
Rich List places in brackets

Indeed, the fact that Newcastle and Tottenham are among the richest clubs in the world should have their bosses hanging their heads in shame. How long has it been since their fans were accusing the chairman of treating them like walking pockets? Days? Weeks? I won't even ask the last time they won anything domestically, let alone in Europe.

Meanwhile in Spain the emphasis remains firmly on the pitch. Real Madrid have an enormous turnover, but they also have the kind of debt that would make the president of a third world country stand back and marvel.

Unlike English clubs Real Madrid will never go bust. From the days of General Franco's rule when the club was effectively run for the entertainment of his dictatorship, Real have found that no bank or money lender in Spain would ever dare call in a debt on them. To Spaniards money is a means to an end. A European Cup Final with two Spanish teams was testament to that fact. Both Valencia and Real Madrid are joined by Deportivo La Coruna in the top 20 clubs, just Real are in the rich list.

So too in Italy, to an extent. The larger clubs in Italy are run either by major companies or by owners of major companies and success off the field automatically leads to happy successes on the field. Italian champions Lazio, for example, have thrived under the presidency of Sergio Cragnotti, who in turn provides Rome with most of its tinned and processed food.

Since he took over there have been rumours that prices have risen for no reason other than to finance the purchase of big name stars. The fans who buy his food are happy enough to pay the extra few pence if it means success on the field.

Italy's financial solidity is bourne out by the fact that every one of the clubs in the rich list are also mentioned as some of the top clubs on the pitch as well.

Deloitte and Touche are severely misguided if they seriously believe that English football is in good business hands. Most of those in the list have players with over-inflated egos and bulging pockets. Clubs dropping out of the Premiership have shown - it's a fine line between boom or bust in England. Success doesn't even enter their book balancing equation it seems.