Real Madrid has announced a world record turnover for a football club for the third year in a row, as revenue increased for the fifth year in a row.
In a club press release on Tuesday, Madrid announced total revenue of 1.221 billion euros for 2025-26. This is the first time a club has claimed to exceed €1.2 billion and marks a three percent increase in the Spanish side’s own figures compared to a season earlier.
However, this includes at least 23.5 million euros in “income” from the release of a provision in connection with a lawsuit by the EU Commission that was settled last September. Madrid have in the past taken such reserve surpluses into account as income, although many other clubs do not; By removing this amount, their revenue would fall below the total value of 1.2 billion euros in 2025-2026.
Despite this, Madrid’s earning power remains extremely impressive, surpassing all others in the sport and continuing to grow, even in a season in which they have won nothing on the pitch. In England, where much of football’s money is increasingly flowing, Arsenal is expected to top the revenue list for 2025-26 with around £800m (€934m) – well behind Madrid’s figure.
Madrid also announced record EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of €287 million, an increase of €44 million (18 percent) compared to 2024-25. EBITDA is a type of cash operating profit indicator, but it can be manipulated. In the Madrid example, the EBITDA figure includes profits from player sales, which are generally not counted (nor when) at other clubs. The athletic one presents his own analysis of the teams’ EBITDA figures).
These latest figures show the continued benefits of the recent costly renovation of their home ground at the Bernabeu Stadium.
What Madrid defines as “stadium revenue” amounted to 363 million euros last season, more than double what it was before the renovations and an increase of 36 million euros (11 percent) in one year. However, around €10 million of that came from the sale of personal seat licenses (PSLs), which, in addition to certain “exclusive services” at the Bernabeu, give buyers the right to buy season tickets for the next 30 years.
Real Madrid’s renovated stadium was a positive source of income (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
The Madrid stadium makes them a lot of money, although the club was unable to host live concerts last season due to a dispute over noise levels.
That €363 million represented growth, but was actually €39 million below what Madrid had budgeted for 2025-2026 stadium revenue, and meant the presented total of €1.221 billion was €27 million under budget (more-than-expected TV money softened the blow).
The Bernabeu’s renovation has not been without problems, some of which continue to crop up.
At the end of June, Spain’s Supreme Court rejected plans for two new car parks next to the stadium, for the construction and subsequent management of which the city authorities were supposed to pay the club 561 million euros. Madrid had to incur almost 100 million euros in construction costs and then operate these parking lots for four decades, but initial estimates still suggested a significant profit for the club, which now will not materialize.
However, a senior club source is speaking out The athletic one speaking on condition of anonymity belied the apparent significance of this Supreme Court ruling. In their opinion, the expected net revenue from the car parks was not “the deciding factor” and they considered that Madrid’s ultimate revenue would be lower than previously reported.
In addition, the club’s previous construction costs only amounted to around 20 million euros, a sum that is now to be offset. But while club officials play down the impact, Madrid took on this part of the project for a reason, and its scrapping leaves a gap in previous plans.
Madrid says the entire Bernabeu renovation project is now “virtually complete” and infrastructure spending is expected to fall as a result. In the period 2025-2026, a further 60.7 million euros went into construction work on the stadium, bringing the total investment in the project to over 1.4 billion euros.
That in turn has led to a significant amount of debt, although the timing of repayments has been designed to take advantage of the record income the club now enjoys from a world-class home.
These repayments meant that, although an additional €61 million was spent on the Bernabeu project, the associated debt fell slightly from €1.132 billion to €1.108 billion. Madrid has taken on three tranches of debt to finance operations, although annual repayments of €26 million for the final tranche will not begin until November 2027. From then on, the club will repay €66 million annually for the project; This is an impressive sum, but it should be more than covered by increasing stadium revenues.
The club’s debt outside the stadium had also fallen to 92 million euros by the end of last month, having been around double the previous year, although this was also reflected in a year-on-year decline in Madrid’s cash position.
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Madrid’s enormous costs
Despite this enormous income, the costs significantly reduce the club’s finances.
The athletic one reported earlier this year that Madrid’s cash balance at the end of 2025 was just €3.5 million. Furthermore, our in-depth examination of the club’s books last year revealed a situation where the cash balance at the end of June is routinely lower than the wage bill payable in July (Madrid players’ salaries are paid twice a year: in July and then in December).
This amount payable is not disclosed in this latest press release, but with cash on hand at just €83 million at the end of June, this pattern has undeniably continued.
Madrid has plenty of resources to pay off liabilities: in our in-depth look, we detailed how sponsorship payments from big deals with Adidas and Emirates are timed to align with staff spending. They also had undrawn credit lines of 475 million euros available to them as of the end of last month.
The same senior source mentioned earlier advised this The athletic one that credit lines were of course drawn down in July to pay off liabilities and debt in itself is not a problem, but it highlights the enormous costs of running a business the size of Real Madrid.
In the 2025/26 season they were profitable again for the 24th time in a row and posted an after-tax surplus of 26.3 million euros (+1.9 million euros, eight percent compared to the previous year). In a sport in which hardly any club makes a profit, this is remarkable, even if it includes quirks such as excess commission and one-off PSL sales.
The size of the profit appears to be rather small, given revenues of around €1.2 billion, even though Madrid is member-owned and does not naturally seek large surpluses.
Madrid are keen to emphasize that all money is reinvested into the club and, although there have been recent complaints from president Florentino Perez about having to compete in the transfer market with heavily backed foreign clubs, there is little saving in this area either.
Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras and Franco Mastantuono saw 161 million euros flow into new signings in 2025-26, and while a salary breakdown is not yet available, “sports personnel expenditure” (i.e. sports salaries plus depreciation of transfer fees) rose sharply, from 540 million euros to 618 million euros. In terms of revenue, that’s still better than most clubs, but costs are rising.
Nevertheless, it is expected that more will be added this summer.
Huijsen and Mastantuono (right) were expensive signings for the club last summer (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Summer signings and player salaries
As reported by The athletic one On Sunday, Madrid are now in pole position to sign RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande. The deal will cost them more than 100 million euros. Work is continuing to sign 2026 World Cup-winning midfielder Rodri from Manchester City.
When asked about the likelihood of these deals going ahead, a club source declined to elaborate, but stressed that Madrid’s revenue – from the sale of Nico Paz (Como) as well as sales fees related to the departures of Victor Munoz (Osasuna) and Alvaro Rodriguez (Elche) – exceeds what they have spent so far on the signings of Marc Cucurella (Chelsea) and Denzel Dumfries (Inter). These credit lines have considerable scope if Madrid wishes to continue to draw on them. In other words, there is money to be spent.
Madrid under Perez has long sought to downplay any hint of financial concerns and employs various mechanisms to ensure the club appears in the best possible light: using reserves and one-off revenue to boost revenue and keep the club in the black; Skillful cash flow management keeps debt low at the balance sheet date; Stadium debt is routinely presented less clearly than the much smaller debt outside the stadium.
None of this suggests impending trouble, but running Madrid is not the walk in the park it is sometimes made out to be. A really big commitment from the players would increase the daily net debt, which the club would like to see close to zero. Balance is required in the Spanish capital.
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Of course, these world record sales help everything run more smoothly.
Even in a year in which they didn’t win anything and sales at club branches fell by 20 percent as a result, Madrid remained a marketing giant: according to their categorization, sales in this area are 539 million euros, 82 percent higher than in the days before the Bernabeu renovation. In the period 2025-26 alone, the share of marketing revenue from sponsorships and licenses increased by 17 percent.
Further growth is expected.
Bernabeu Infinito, an immersive virtual reality fan experience, was recently launched and the club is committed to taking full advantage of new technologies to increase this revenue. A fully functioning Bernabeu will also ensure that the money keeps flowing.
According to Tuesday’s publication, 93 percent of Madrid’s €464 million increase in revenue since 2018/19 comes from “revenue managed directly by the club,” i.e. revenue that does not come from broadcasting. The stadium project has brought new income to football.
Madrid’s full financial data for 2025-26 will not be published until September, when further insights will be available.
A full assessment of the current position is impossible without these forthcoming details, but for now, Madrid’s earning power puts the club exactly where it always wants to be: at the top and in the headlines.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7474893/2026/07/28/real-madrid-world-record-revenue-money/
