Royal and richest: Real posts record revenue

Spanish giant reveals financial results — with €578 million in revenue, it confirmed its position as the world’s highest-earning club.

For a decade now, Spanish football giant Real Madrid has been the wealthiest club in the world — and it will not lose that position next year either. The “royal” team’s management published its financial results for the 2014/2015 fiscal year on its official website, realmadrid.com. According to the report, Real Madrid’s revenue rose by more than five percent year-on-year to €578 million — almost €30 million more than in the previous season. The club achieved this economic success, including a €42-million post-tax profit, despite failing to win any trophies. In La Liga, it finished second behind FC Barcelona, and in the Champions League it was eliminated in the semi-finals by Juventus Turin.

Top income? Sponsors and shirts
It is not the hundreds of thousands of tickets sold or the millions earned from offloading surplus players. Real Madrid’s biggest revenue source is commercial income — meaning money from sponsorship deals, shirt sales, and other licensed products worldwide. Among the club’s partners, the highest-paying is Saudi Arabian airline Emirates, whose logo has been on Real’s white shirts since 2013. The club earns €20 million a year from this deal. Significant money also flows in from shirt sales. On average, around 1.6 million shirts are sold annually, and with an average price of €55 each, the club earns almost €90 million from this category alone. Shirts account for as much as 15 percent of the club’s total revenue.

Television milestone broken
After commercial income, the second-largest revenue stream for the club is from the sale of television rights — and here Real Madrid broke an unprecedented barrier. “Real Madrid became the first club in history to earn more than €200 million in a single year from television rights sales,” says Dan Jones from Deloitte, which compiles the annual ranking of the richest clubs. Even elite Premier League teams such as Chelsea and Manchester United can only dream of such sums. The reason is simple: “While in the English Premier League, television revenue is distributed on a solidarity basis, in Spain Real Madrid and Barcelona receive by far the largest share,” said Economic Daily sports analyst and football agent Jozef Tokos. The other 18 clubs in Spain’s top division receive television money that is up to six times lower. (...)