RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesA carpet with a print of Real Madrid's badge is seen ahead of the UEFA Champions League semi final second leg football match between Real Madrid CF and FC Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on May 8, 2024. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Real Madrid’s board signed off on the 2025-26 accounts on July 28, and the numbers put the club somewhere no sports organization has been before. Operating revenue, stripped of transfer income, hit €1.221 billion ($1.39 billion), up 3.1% on the year and the first time any sports entity has crossed the €1.2 billion ($1.37 billion) line. EBITDA reached €287.4 million ($327.6 million), up 18%, and net profit after tax was €26.3 million ($30 million), up 8%.
That closes a 26th consecutive profitable financial year dating back to 2000, but possibly the more interesting number is the composition of it, built on growth off the field rather than on it.
Since 2018/19, the last full season before Real Madrid tore down its stadium and started over, revenue has grown 61%, from €757 million ($863 million) to €1.221 billion ($1.39 billion). Of that increase, 93% has come from income the club controls directly rather than income tied to results on the field or league broadcast deals.
Stadium revenue has more than doubled, up 107% to €363 million ($413.8 million), while marketing and sponsorship income is up 82% to €539 million ($614.5 million).
Television and international competition money, the category most exposed to how Real Madrid actually performs in the Champions League, grew just 11% over the same seven years, to €319 million ($363.7 million).
In year-on-year terms for 2025-26 alone, stadium income rose 11% and marketing rose 6%, both credited to renewed sponsorship deals and new partners rather than results on the pitch.
A club whose revenue used to swing with knockout rounds and league position now has a majority of its growth coming from an asset it owns outright and a sponsorship book it renews on its own schedule.
The Bernabéu, per the club, now generates more than double what it did before the renovation. The stadium project itself has cost €1.408 billion ($1.6 billion) to date, financed substantially through a €1.108 billion ($1.26 billion) drawn loan facility, and Madrid describes the rebuild as “practically finished” after several years of playing home games around scaffolding and reduced capacity in sections.
Where this sits against the market
Deloitte’s Football Money League , which tracks calendar-year rather than club financial-year figures, had Real Madrid at €1.161 billion ($1.32 billion) for 2025, ahead of Barcelona’s €974.8 million ($1.11 billion), Bayern Munich’s €860.6 million ($981 million), PSG’s €837 million ($954.2 million) and Liverpool’s €836.1 million ($953.2 million).
Real Madrid has now topped that list for three straight editions and is the only club to have cleared the billion-euro mark in consecutive years.
The trend underneath that ranking is worth flagging. Barcelona jumped 27% year over year largely off one-off income from Seat Licence sales tied to the Camp Nou rebuild, the same mechanism Real Madrid used around its own stadium project a few years earlier.
Manchester City’s revenue was flat and Manchester United grew only 3%, continuing a run in which no Premier League club has finished in the Money League’s top four for the first time in the ranking’s 29-year history.
Continental clubs mid-stadium renovation or post-stadium renovation, Real Madrid and Barcelona specifically, are pulling away from the Premier League names that used to define the top of the list on broadcast income alone.
Spending discipline alongside the growth
Squad costs (wages plus amortization) have risen 37% since 2018-19, to €618 million ($704.5 million), slower than the 61% revenue growth over the same period, and Madrid says that keeps personnel costs at 46% of revenue, under the 50% threshold the club treats as its ceiling.
€161 million ($183.5 million) went into player signings in 2025-26 alone, and the club says it intends to keep spending into 2026-27 across both football and basketball, and a further €192 million ($218.9 million) went into facilities and technology platform investment for the year.
Net financial position stays conservative: €624 million ($711.4 million) in equity, €83 million ($94.6 million) in cash, €9 million ($10.3 million) in net debt excluding the stadium project, and a debt-to-EBITDA ratio the club rounds to zero.
It also holds €475 million ($541.5 million) in undrawn credit facilities. As a members-owned club, Real Madrid distributes no dividends; profit is reinvested into infrastructure and squads by structure, not choice.
The club also reported a €354.8 million ($404.5 million) contribution to Spanish tax revenue and social security for the year, a figure it has taken to publicizing alongside the results in recent cycles as part of its broader economic-impact messaging.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
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