There has long been something inevitable about Real Madrid’s success, an intangible quality that sets them on course for major silverware year after year. It’s been less obvious in the Champions League this season, but their place at the summit of European football is still calcifying.
For a second consecutive year, they topped Deloitte’s Money League, released today. The figures are for last season, which ended with another Champions League title for Real Madrid, enabling them to become the first football club to push through €1billion in annual revenue, earning €1.05bn (£884m; $1.08bn).
And they are threatening to leave the rest behind. Deloitte’s latest study of club finances, published every January, placed Real Madrid €208m clear of Manchester City in second, a gulf bigger than any seen before in these rankings, and €240m beyond Paris Saint-Germain in third.
Manchester United, who once led the way, and Bayern Munich complete a familiar top five, with Arsenal (seventh), Liverpool (eighth), Tottenham Hotspur (ninth) and Chelsea (10th) ensuring six of the top 10 come from the Premier League.
Real Madrid’s Champions League and La Liga double helped enhance their bottom line but the 2023-24 numbers point towards them redefining what it will take to be a financial powerhouse.
Deloitte says a fully renovated Bernabeu brought in just shy of €250m in matchday revenue last season, roughly £10m a game. Combined with record commercial activities, which were up to €482m, it resulted in year-on-year growth of 26 per cent. Catch them if you can.
The Bernabeu, rebuilt to house 80,000 supporters, has changed the landscape. Real Madrid’s matchday revenues almost doubled year on year and helps explain why another five of the latest top 10 clubs are either in the middle of reconstruction work or have made their ambitions to expand homes known. PSG, United, City, Barcelona and Chelsea can all look enviously at Madrid’s new income.
The redeveloped Bernabeu in December 2023 (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Only in broadcast revenues, where City’s latest Premier League title gave them an edge, do Real Madrid find themselves trailing any other rival but it scarcely matters when other returns are so vast. Manchester United, who generated greater revenues than Real Madrid as recently as 2016-17, saw the Spanish club turning over 36 per cent more than they managed last season.
“What really helped Real Madrid this year was the Bernabeu fully opening,” explains Kunal Sajdeh, manager at the Deloitte Sports Business Group.
“What that did for them was that matchday and commercial grew significantly. They had an elevated capacity they capitalised on, they sold personal seat licences, monetising something you see in the U.S. market.
“Also — and it’s a trend we’re seeing more — clubs were selling personal experiences because that’s what the new generation of fan values. Part of the stadium development also leads into commercial, where you have non-matchday, live events like concerts.”
A moot point, perhaps, after local residents forced concert plans to be iced due to noise levels but, a year after hosting two nights of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, the NFL will bring its first game to Spain. The money is guaranteed to keep coming Real Madrid’s way.
Revenue diversification has become the name of the game across Europe’s elite. In a new era where broadcast revenues have begun to flatten, even contracting in countries like France, the focus is increasingly on increasing matchday and commercial income.
Barcelona will feel the benefit when returning to a rebuilt Camp Nou next season, yesterday estimating that the sale of 9,400 VIP seats will generate an additional €120m each year.
Liverpool’s first full season in an expanded Anfield, now housing 61,000, will also boost their next returns.
Deloitte says the 11 per cent year-on-year rise for matchday revenue across the study, primarily driven by Real Madrid’s spike, makes it the fastest-growing stream for the elite clubs.
The commercial arms race also remains key for the biggest clubs, with every sponsorship deal and partnership seeking to increase revenues that make up, on average, 44 per cent of the top 20’s income. None do it better than Real Madrid, though, who made four times what city neighbours Atletico did last season.
Premier League clubs have been unable to keep pace but their presence is still felt keenly. Six of the top 10 are England’s so-called ‘Big Six’. Lower down, Newcastle United are up to 15th, West Ham United are 17th and Aston Villa are 18th.
Arsenal’s returns are perhaps the most notable. Their total revenue was up 35 per cent to €717m after finishing second in the Premier League and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals last season. That was almost double their turnover from the Covid-19 season of 2020-21 and enough to lift them above Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, who saw income fall by seven per cent after missing out on European football last season.
That enduring value of the Champions League was also shown in the returns of Newcastle, who saw 57 per cent of their €371m annual turnover come from broadcast revenue once they returned to Europe’s flagship competition.
Villa, a Championship club as recently as 2019, were also upwardly mobile and back in the top 20 for the first time since 2009-10 after pushing revenues up to €310m. That is already certain to grow again as they target the last 16 of this season’s Champions League, where financial distribution has climbed to new heights with its revised format. Villa, in theory, could make more than €100m from the Champions League this season.
“There are broadcast benefits but also, not as noticeable, it permeates into sponsorships,” says Sajdeh. “The Champions League creates that rising tide to lift all boats.”
The findings of Deloitte, which began its annual study of clubs in 1996-97, again underline football’s growing appeal. Its latest top 20 clubs together generated €11.2bn during the 2023-24 season, a six per cent increase on the previous campaign. (Last year’s Money League is here.)
For all that there was no uplift in broadcast revenues, static at €4.3bn, the game’s growing appeal is insulating the elite clubs and enabling continued growth. Real Madrid led the way but plenty more have ambitions to follow the Spanish club through that €1bn mark. The bubble refuses to burst.
“We’re looking at largely the same set of clubs, only 11 have featured in the top 10 over the last eight years, but sometimes it’s the reinforcement of direction of travel that stands out,” says Sajdeh. “Revenue diversification has further strengthened and we’re seeing clubs more and more take control over their revenues.
“Clubs at the highest level say, ‘What more can we do with our stadium and our brands?’. That’s central to it.”
And Real Madrid have it cracked.
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(Top photo: Real Madrid celebrate winning the Champions League in 2024; by Justin Setterfield via Getty Images)
