Real Madrid achieves record revenues of around 1.5 billion euros

Real Madrid has become the first club to exceed one billion euros in revenue in a single season (2023-2024), a record number, placing the Spanish and European champions at the top of the list of what is known as the “Money League” in football, according to the financial auditing company Deloitte on Thursday.

In a similar arrangement to the season before last, Real topped the list with 1.5 billion euros, ahead of Manchester City, the English Premier League champion for the past four seasons, which came in second (836 million euros), and Paris Saint-Germain of France, which came in third (806 million euros).

The €208 million difference between the first and second place is the largest ever recorded by Deloitte.

The renovation of Real's Santiago Bernabeu stadium doubled matchday revenues to €248 million last season.

The club has also taken out loans totalling more than €1 billion since 2018 to renovate its stadium, with the aim of turning it into a major source of revenue.

The stadium has hosted many events outside of football, with American pop star Taylor Swift among the big names to perform at the stadium since its reopening, while the first NFL match will be held at the Bernabeu later this year.

Real Madrid, seeking to use its 80,000-capacity stadium to bring in extra cash, has faced complaints about noise pollution from residents and the club has temporarily stopped hosting concerts.

Despite matchday revenues rising by 11 per cent, commercial revenues remained the largest source of revenue for the 20 Money League clubs for the second year running, accounting for 44 per cent of total revenues.

Broadcast revenues were steady at €4.3 billion as the top five leagues - England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany - remained on the same domestic broadcast cycle as the previous season.

English clubs continued to dominate the top positions, supported by revenues from the sale of television rights to the Premier League, as they occupied six of the top 10 clubs, and nine of the top 20 clubs in the “Money League”.

Manchester United moved up to fourth place thanks to their return to the Champions League (€771m), ahead of Bayern Munich (€765m). Barcelona, meanwhile, dropped to sixth after renovations to their Camp Nou stadium forced the Catalan giants to move to the smaller Montjuïc stadium, which hosted the 1992 Olympics.

English clubs Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea completed the top ten, despite the last three teams failing to qualify for the Champions League last season.

(French)