Madrid won nothing, earned a record | MJBurrows Sport - Issue No 9

Two Wednesday stories, two opposite answers to the same question: how does a football club actually grow its income? Real Madrid built its own. The rest of English football spent the day arguing over how to share a pot that isn't getting any bigger.

Real Madrid finished last season with no LaLiga title and a Champions League exit at the quarter-final, then published accounts that made the football look beside the point. Operating revenue came in at €1.221bn, or £1.04bn, a 3% rise on the year before and the highest any sports team has ever recorded, past the mark the NFL's Dallas Cowboys set in 2024. The growth sits in the lines the club controls: stadium revenue rose 11% last season, marketing 6%, and since 2018-19 total revenue is up 61%, with the club crediting 93% of that to businesses it runs itself. The rebuilt Santiago Bernabéu, now filling concert nights between the matches, is the engine. A record set while winning nothing is the part every rival should read twice.

English football's money went the other way — into a room where someone can now overrule both sides. Premier League and EFL chiefs are meeting the Independent Football Regulator this week, a body with legal power to impose a settlement if the two keep failing to agree one. The proposals would lift solidarity payments from the current £100m to £110m range past £150m a season, cut parachute payments gradually, and hand the top flight a 10-year term in return. For scale, the Premier League turns over around £3.65bn a year and keeps £2.8bn among its own clubs, sending roughly £240m down the pyramid. A £20m lifeboat for clubs in administration sits alongside. The total is fixed; only the split is up for grabs.

One club widened its own ceiling; a whole league sat down to divide a fixed one — same Wednesday, opposite lessons.

Real Madrid finished last season without the LaLiga title and out of the Champions League at the quarter-final. Yet the accounts tell a different story. Operating revenue came in at €1.221bn, or £1.04bn, the highest any sports team has ever reported. Winning, it turns out, is not where the money is.

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English football has argued about money for years. This week the argument finally gets a referee, but not the kind anyone wanted. Premier League and EFL chiefs are meeting the Independent Football Regulator, the watchdog with legal power to impose a settlement if they cannot reach it themselves. The Premier League EFL deal on the table would lift solidarity payments above £150m a season.

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Real Madrid won nothing all season and still out-earned every team in the history of sport, while the rest of football sat in a room haggling over who gets what. One club built a bigger table; everyone else argued over the same one. — MJB