Real Madrid eye £1bn injection to keep pace with Premier League elite
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is taking steps to ensure they remain competitive with Premier League clubs by inviting private equity to invest close to £1bn.
Perez is expected to use the annual meeting of the club’s approximately 100,000 members on Sunday to announce proposals to change the club’s ownership structure.
The plan considered most likely to prevail is for the creation of a new company that will hold 10 per cent of shares in Real Madrid, who Perez is reported to value at €10bn (£8.8bn).
Such a move would open the club up to private investment for the first time in their 123-history without relinquishing the member-owned status that they share with rivals FC Barcelona.
“Our club must have an organisational structure that protects us as an institution and also protects all of us as owners of Real Madrid,” Perez said.
“To this end, I confirm that we will bring to this Assembly a proposal for the club’s corporate reorganisation that secures our future, protects us from the threats we face, and, above all, guarantees that the members are true owners of our club and its financial assets.”
Real Madrid look to replicate stadium deal
Real Madrid are already the world’s richest club, topping Deloitte’s Football Money League for 14 of the last 20 editions of the ranking of the world’s top revenue-generating teams.
But like fellow European giants such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and AC Milan, they are fighting a losing battle with English clubs for income.
Premier League sides spent £3bn during the last transfer window – more than the top divisions of Spain, Germany, France and Italy combined – fuelled by media rights revenues that now total £4bn a year and dwarf those of their rivals on the continent.
Real Madrid raised €360m (£317m) in 2022 by selling a 20 per cent stake to institutional investors in a new company set up to manage takings from its Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
In 2017, the 15-time European champions sold a share of future sponsorship revenues to another US group, Providence Equity Partners.
Perez and the club’s advisors, who are reported to include Clifford Chance and Key Capital Partners, are said to favour creating a new company for the planned minority investment.
Barcelona have already used similar financial levers to remain competitive during a period of financial crisis caused by historic mismanagement.