The Political Economy of Football V2

Atletico Madrid have reached a 10-year strategic agreement with entertainment company Live Nation to stage concerts at their Metropolitano home ground,  The Athletic  has revealed. It comes at a time when city rivals Real Madrid have seen their own plans to hold concerts at their refurbished Santiago Bernabeu stadium curtailed by complaints and legal disputes over noise pollution regulations. Under Atletico’s new deal, between 15 and 20 concerts are expected to be held each year at the Metropolitano, all during the off-season months when there are no competitive club fixtures.   The agreement also includes the option of an extension beyond its 10-year term and is expected to be announced officially in the coming hours. The plan is to use not only the stadium itself but also a new smaller arena that is due to be built alongside it, as well as an existing fan zone just outside the ground, which already has a stage. According to industry sources, Atletico expect to r...

Over the past decade American financing has reshaped global football in its image, with billions of dollars of investment, a fast-growing domestic audience and a generation of new players. While US owners of European football teams have faced protests from fans for years, friction is rising. Some fear the sport is losing its way in pursuit of profit and that outside money is distorting the game’s balance of power. And yet the arrival of professional investors has so far done little to fix the game’s parlous finances. Americans now own 117 European clubs, according to data from CIES Sports Intelligence, including more than half the teams in the English Premier League, more than a third of Italy’s Serie A and over a quarter of Ligue 1 in France.  The effects are being felt both on and off the pitch. Clubs are increasingly run with commercial success front of mind, aping the US sports model, where team ownership has proved lucrative. This has led to a push to tighten football’s fi...

Florentino Perez has been re-elected Real Madrid president, winning 65 per cent of the votes in an electoral victory over challenger Enrique Riquelme. It was the first time Madrid’s members had voted for the club president in 20 years, with the incumbent Perez elected unopposed in each of Madrid’s previous five electoral cycles, held in 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2025. Perez did not need to call this election. He had an active mandate until 2029, but announced the vote in a remarkable press conference on May 12, calling on his rivals to “come out of the shadows” and face him.   This snap decision was aimed at strengthening his power at the Bernabeu, after a second successive season without a trophy, and a string of difficult off-pitch setbacks. Although the 79-year-old has now won a new four-year mandate, it is arguable that his standing inside and outside the club has not improved. Few Madrid members even knew who Riquelme was before Perez’s rambling media event last month...

The FT’s Lex column takes a sceptical look at the Pink Un’s interview with Real Madrid supremo Florentino Pérez a few pages away. What’s the biggest prize in football? Many fans would point to the golden trophy awaiting the winners of the World Cup, which kicks off next week. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, however, reckons there’s an even more prestigious honour: owning a piece of his club. Pérez wants the fan-owned club to sell a stake to outside investors for the first time. But, to allay fears among existing members, he insists any new owners won’t actually have real ownership. “It would be like a sponsorship,” he said in an interview with the FT this week. In some respects, Pérez — the architect of Real Madrid’s so-called Galácticos strategy of signing the world’s most famous players — is in tune with the times. Investors in Elon Musk’s rockets-meet-social-media conglomerate SpaceX have practically no say over governance, but the excitement surrounding its impending ...

Florentino Pérez said prospective investors will pay handsomely “for the satisfaction of having a relationship” with Real Madrid but receive nothing in return, as the president of the world’s richest football club pursues a contentious plan to bring in outside capital at a €10bn-plus valuation.   In a rare interview with the English-language press, which came as he fights for re-election, Pérez told the Financial Times that acquiring a stake in member-owned Real Madrid was not like buying a traditional asset that would yield a concrete financial return. “It would be like a sponsorship, let’s put it that way,” he said. “In other words, there are people who associate themselves with Real Madrid without expecting anything.” After presiding over a trophy-laden 22 years at the helm of Real Madrid, Pérez’s future lies in the hands of the club’s members after he called a presidential election last month to quell growing unrest around the club. While Real Madrid generated €1.2bn of rev...

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez is in election mode. He says the Spanish football giants are worth €10bn and rising. “In a few years it will be worth €20bn,” he told the Financial Times this week. He’s not the only one who thinks his club’s value has hit 11 figures. Manchester City chair Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who also leads Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, says the club has multiplied in value since Sheikh Mansour first bought in at an estimated valuation of $100mn-$120mn in 2008. “If you’re going to sell all this today in the market, you wouldn’t sell it for less than $10 billion minimum,” Khaldoon said in his annual interview published by City. He went on to say the club wasn’t for sale, just to be clear. So far only the Los Angeles Lakers have hit the $10bn mark, although the Seattle Seahawks might soon join them. Minority deals are getting done in that ball park too. But can a football team really be worth that much? Real Madrid have been crowned champion...

For a club that has won more La Liga and Champions League titles than any other team on the planet, the past two seasons have been disappointments for Real Madrid, which finished behind arch rival Barcelona in the Spanish league standings in back-to-back years and crashed out of European competition in the quarterfinals each time. Yet for all of the hand-wringing among the team’s exacting fans, business has never been better for Los Blancos. During the 2024-25 season, Real Madrid posted $1.27 billion in revenue, up 12% from its mark the year prior, already a record for a soccer club. In fact, the new figure just edges the Dallas Cowboys $1.23bn from the 2024 NFL season for the highest revenue total for a sports team ever measured by  Forbes  (without adjusting for inflation). So even with Real Madrid sitting out Saturday’s Champions League final—where Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain will battle for an extra $29 million in prize money—Los Blancos are the worl...

There is to be an election for the presidency of Real Madrid.  Florentino Pérez, a 79 year old construction magnate and president for the last 25 years could well hang on, but his authority is ebbing away. The club has 100,000 members who pay €179 a year, although a season ticket costs an extra €3,200 on top.  Some members sell their tickets on. Real Madrid has not won a grand trophy for two years.  An expansion of the Bernebau budgeted at €575m has cost €1.3 billion and counting.  The Spanish squad for the World Cup does not include a single Real Madrid player. Pérez called his first press conference for ten years and gave a rambling and paranoid performance, blaming referees and the press among others. His opponent is Enrique Riquelme, 37, who owns an energy business.  The first presidential election in 20 years has been called for June 7th.  Meanwhile, the appointment of the 'special one' as manager has been delayed. Pérez is favourite to win, but that t...

Problems on the pitch and in the dressing room in Madrid are feeding into the boardroom. This week Florentino Pérez, the club’s all-powerful president,  said  he would call an election, even though his current term runs for another three years. He vowed not to resign, and lashed out at his various critics, who he blamed for trying to destabilise the club. “Why do they want to get rid of me? Just because a few people are saying they want to stand for election? Let them stand”, he said. It’s not that long ago that Pérez was touting his plan to reorganise Real Madrid in order to raise money from investors. The idea was to allow an outside party — perhaps a private equity firm — to buy a stake of 5 to 10 per cent. The proposal is controversial, to say the least, for a club owned by its 100,000 members. The Spanish club has the highest revenue in football, at more than €1bn a year. Sportico reckons the club is worth $7.7bn; Football Benchmark has a slightly lower figure of aro...

One branch of my family now lives in Spain, but unfortunately none of them are interested in football.   That would be a lot to ask of my great-granddaughter who is three, but I have watched the older pupils from her school (boys and girls) enjoying a kick about in the village square. From his Zurich fastness, the Swiss Ramble has been casting his eye over the finances of Atlético Madrid.    Much more detail and analysis are available on his Substack page.   Some highlights follow. Private equity firm Apollo Sports Capital became majority shareholder in Atlético Madrid last November, buying a reported 55% stake. Following this deal, Quantum Pacific, founded by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, is the second largest shareholder with a stake of roughly 25%, while American investment firm Ares Management now has 5%. Gil Marin has seen his stake reduce to 10%, though he will remain as CEO, while club president Enrique Cerezo is down to 3%. Apollo’s investmen...

Real  Madrid file interim financials each year, and while they were again profitable in the opening half of this season, their surplus drooped notably. In the six months to the end of December 2024, Madrid made a pre-tax profit of €38.3m. A year on, the figure was just €6.1m, an 84 per cent fall. The heightened wage bill was a key driver in that, with most of the increase attributable to football staff and, within them, to first-team players.   Personnel costs there rose by €26.5m, as the impact of several new signings — Dean Huijsen, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alvaro Carreras and Franco Mastantuono — was felt. Captain Dani Carvajal’s new contract, signed in October 2024, also had a bearing; six months of any extra cost incurred by that new deal will have been recorded in the latest figures, as opposed to just three months in those from a year ago. Wages in the club’s basketball team jumped too, up €7.8m to €25.1m, but that still meant Madrid’s football-related wage bill for...

From his Zurich base the authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews how clubs have done so far in this season’s Uefa competitions.   Much more detail about clubs and calculations can be found on his Substack page. Eight of the top ten in money terms also featured in the top ten of the Deloitte Money League, while another one (Inter) was 11th in the so-called “Rich List”.   The only club that spoiled the strong correlation between money and success on the downside was Manchester United, which highlights the extent of the mismanagement at Old Trafford. His calculations suggest that five clubs have already received more than €90m from the Champions League, namely Bayern Munich €100m, Manchester City €97m, Liverpool €97m, Arsenal €96m and Chelsea €92m.   They are closely followed by Barcelona €89m, Tottenham €84m, Paris Saint-Germain €82m and Real Madrid €81m. Revenue available for distribution in the Europa League is less than a quarter of the Champions League, which has ...

 In 2024/25, Real Madrid remained the only football club to generate over €1 billion in revenue, doing so for the second consecutive year. While the club reported a 6% decrease in matchday revenue, primarily driven by a reduction in revenue from the sale of Personal Seat Licenses, its €233m matchday revenue would still rank as the second highest ever generated by a Money League club. Additionally, the club reported a 23% increase in commercial revenue, driven by improved merchandise performance and new commercial partners. For the first time since 2019/20, FC Barcelona returned to the Deloitte Money League podium (2 nd ), generating €975m. Despite continuing to play matches away from the Spotify Camp Nou, which is due for completion during the 2025/26 season, the club reported a 27% growth in revenue compared to 2023/24. A key driver for this growth was the introduction of Personal Seat Licence arrangements, generating one-off c.€70m. Much like Real Madrid during the 2023/24 se...

Alonso’s sacking shows that at Real Madrid, the opinion of only one man ultimately counts: the president. Perez has given up very quickly on new managers before — Rafael Benitez lasted six months during the 2015-16 campaign, and Julen Lopetegui got just 14 games before the axe fell in the autumn of 2018. Alonso has not improved his reputation during his short time as Madrid coach, failing to get the team playing the way he wants. His reserved personality and technocratic approach led to issues with both the dressing room and the boardroom. He may also have regrets about allowing himself to drift away from his own convictions over recent months. Ultimately, the past eight months have served as a reminder of just how unique Madrid is within world sport. Perhaps a ‘project’ manager like Alonso, who came in looking to impose his own ideas about the game, was always doomed to failure. Some around the Bernabeu say that Perez was never convinced about the idea of hiring him, which made ...

Are Real Madrid the world’s top club?   That’s a contested title, but they are formidable on and off the pitch.   Here are a few salient financial considerations.   Scour any list of the world’s richest football clubs and you’ll find Real Madrid at its business end. In 14 of the past 20 years, Madrid have registered football’s biggest revenues. Revenue doesn’t equal rich, but Madrid’s bottom line has been healthy for a while, too. Financials for the 2024-25 season, released last month, confirmed another profitable year in the Spanish capital; Madrid have now booked a surplus for 23 consecutive years, a streak that even withstood the Covid-19 pandemic. To the world’s highest turnover and long-run profitability, add a lack of debt. Madrid and their club president Florentino Perez have prided themselves on the latter, with low net debt regularly cited whenever their latest figures are announced. Madrid’s commercial profile is huge, but it’s far from their only growth...

This week the FT revealed that Bayern Munich had recently held talks with private equity firm EQT about a possible stake sale. While those discussions appear to have fizzled out with the departure of Bayern CFO Michael Diederich, it is nonetheless a sign of the times. German football is largely immune to foreign ownership. The 50+1 rule prevents the majority of clubs from being controlled by anyone other than members, while more general hostility to private equity (expressed through fan protests) has derailed past efforts to bring investment in at the league level. Bayern already has a group of private minority shareholders. Adidas, Audi and Allianz each own just over 8 per cent of the Bavarian side. Members are guaranteed control of at least 70 per cent, leaving 5 per cent for the club to play with. Selling such a little slice at a valuation of about €4bn would have brought in around €200mn, a nice boost to the coffers as the German team looks to keep up with its w...

Germany’s leading football club Bayern Munich held talks this year with EQT over selling a minority stake to the private equity firm, in a deal that would have reignited a heated national debate over the merits of private capital firms investing in football. Negotiations fell apart when Bayern’s chief financial officer Michael Diederich, EQT’s contact at the club, left in the summer to become co-head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate banking business, according to three people familiar with the matter. German football fans have historically been highly critical of outside investment into the sport, with widespread protests prompting the country’s football league last year to call off talks over a potential private equity investment. With a few exceptions, clubs in Germany are subject to the ‘50+1’ ownership rule, which stipulates members must hold majority voting rights, in effect blocking commercial entities from gaining control.   The rise of RB Leipzig, a German club whose r...

Real Madrid’s 2024/25 accounts cover a season which was very much a case of “close, but no cigar”, as they finished runners-up in La Liga and were defeated in the final of the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de Espana, losing out to their great rivals Barcelona on all three occasions. They were also eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by Arsenal, which would be good result for most clubs, but actually represented their worst performance in this competition for five years. Despite the less successful season, Real Madrid managed to increase their pre-tax profit by €11m (57%) from €20m to €31m.   Revenue continued to grow, rising €112m (10%) from €1,073m to a staggering €1,185m. This meant that the club broke the one billion Euros barrier for the second season in a row, a feat that no other football club has yet achieved.   In addition, profit from player sales increased by €11m (52%) from €21m to €32m. The latest positive result means that Real Madrid h...

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez will this weekend push ahead with plans to bring in outside shareholders for the first time in the member-owned club’s 123-year history, as the Spanish team tries to reinforce its status against the growing financial might of Premier League clubs. At Sunday’s annual meeting of members, Pérez is to outline the next steps of a plan to bring fresh capital into the club. That would allow an outside investor to take a 5 to 10 per cent stake in Real Madrid, in a test of the club’s valuation, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. While the meeting is a standard event, where members will vote to approve the annual accounts, Pérez’s speech will be closely watched for updates on potential changes to the club’s corporate structure, the way capital will be raised and the effect on members. Changes to the bylaws will require members to meet and vote, potentially as soon as next year. The stakes are high following US investment firm Apollo’s d...

Real Madrid is planning to seek more than €4bn in damages from Uefa for alleged losses it suffered after European football’s governing body blocked proposals for a controversial Super League. The Spanish football club believes it has lost out on revenues of between €4.5bn and €4.7bn since Uefa vetoed the European Super League plan in 2021, according to documents produced by experts hired by Real Madrid. The figures, seen by the Financial Times, take into account lost match day, broadcast and commercial revenues at Real Madrid, one of the driving forces behind the Super League proposals. One person close to the club said it was planning to shortly file a claim for damages of more than €4bn in the courts.   Real Madrid’s assessment comes after Uefa — alongside La Liga and RFEF, the Spanish football league and national governing body respectively — lost an appeal at the provincial court of Madrid on Wednesday. It upheld a ruling by Madrid’s commercial court that Uefa abused its do...