tribalfootball.com - February 16, 2006
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez's galacticos policy is
paying off with the club now rated the richest on the planet.
Manchester United were overtaken last season in the revenue stakes
by Real Madrid, the Spanish club to whom they sold David Beckham,
the England captain and the world's most marketable player, in
2003.
The Deloitte Football Money League shows that Real Madrid were the
richest club in the world in 2004-05, with turnover of £186 million
compared with United's £166.4 million.
United topped the list of the world's top 20 clubs by revenue for
the previous eight editions of the report but were leapfrogged by
their Spanish rivals, who managed to increase revenues from sources
such as sponsorship and merchandising by 17 per cent year on
year.
Real's rise to the top of the financial pile happened even though
ticket prices in Spain are substantially lower than in
England.
"The club's annual revenue has doubled during the past five
seasons, primarily driven by commercial revenue streams," Dan
Jones, a partner at Deloitte's sports business group, said. "Growth
for most other clubs in the table has tended to come more from
broadcasting and match-day income. Here, Real Madrid have broken
the mould."
Real have generated commercial revenues on the back of big-name
players such as Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Robinho, who
are part of a wider strategic plan to sell the football brand
around the world through shirt sales and licensing deals.
The Spanish club's commercial revenues of £83.7 million eclipsed
United's by £35 million.
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