Real Madrid just became the first sports organization to clear €1.2 billion in operating revenue, a threshold that rewrites what a football club can look like as a business. The board signed off the 2025-26 accounts on July 28 showing €1.221 billion ($1.39 billion) in revenue stripped of transfer income, up 3.1% on the year. EBITDA rose 18% to €287.4 million ($327.6 million) and net profit after tax climbed 8% to €26.3 million ($30 million), extending a streak of profitable years that now stretches back to 2000.
The stadium paid for itself
The Bernabéu renovation cost €1.408 billion ($1.6 billion) to date, financed substantially through a €1.108 billion ($1.26 billion) drawn loan facility, and the club describes the project as practically finished after several seasons of scaffolding and reduced capacity. The payoff is already visible: stadium revenue has more than doubled since 2018-19, up 107% to €363 million ($413.8 million). In 2025-26 alone it rose 11%. The venue now generates more than double what it did before the rebuild, turning a capital project into a recurring asset the club owns outright.
Growth the club controls
Since the last pre-renovation season, total revenue has grown 61% from €757 million ($863 million). Of that increase, 93% has come from income the club controls directly, sponsorship and matchday, rather than from broadcast deals or Champions League runs. Marketing and sponsorship income is up 82% to €539 million ($614.5 million) over the same seven years, with a further 6% lift this past year credited to renewed deals and new partners. Television and international competition money, the line item most exposed to on-field results, grew just 11% to €319 million ($363.7 million).
The Money League gap widens
Deloitte’s Football Money League, which tracks calendar-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 has now topped the list for three straight editions and is the only club to clear the billion-euro mark in consecutive years. Barcelona jumped 27% year over year largely on one-off seat licence sales tied to its own Camp Nou rebuild, the same mechanism Madrid used a few years earlier. Manchester City’s revenue was flat and Manchester United grew 3%, leaving no Premier League club in the top four for the first time in the ranking’s 29-year history.
Spending discipline holds
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. That keeps personnel costs at 46% of revenue, under the 50% ceiling the club sets for itself. Madrid spent €161 million ($183.5 million) on player signings in 2025-26 and another €192 million ($218.9 million) on facilities, with the intention to keep investing across both football and basketball next season. The model is self-reinforcing: the stadium pays for the squad, the squad protects the brand, and the brand fills the stadium.