Real Madrid reaches the Champions League final as economic champion

In the match countdown, the financial trophy is decided.

Real Madrid and Liverpool play their sporting fate in Paris on Saturday in the Champions League final. Regardless of the result, a title is already awarded before the teams take to the pitch: the white club is the leader in the economic chapter, as has been confirmed by the sports business studies published in recent weeks, which already accurately reflect the impact of the pandemic.

The most recent is Football Benchmark, which places Real Madrid as the football club with the highest business value for the fourth consecutive year (3,184 million), relegating Liverpool to fifth position, with 2,556 million.

Although this report gives an advantage in the field to the English club in the specific estimate of the value of the squad -988 million, compared to Madrid's 816 million-, both tie when looking for the "best eleven" in all of Europe. This was also concluded this week by the Football Observatory of the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) -a prestigious think tank of the sports industry-, which chooses seven players from each club in the combinations of the best line-ups in Europe.

It is a particular consolation in the face of the frustrated signing of Mbappé who has finally renewed for PSG and has stood up Real Madrid. A blow to the spirit of Madrid that is partly offset by having won the 35th league in its history, which also feeds his finances.

The title grants the right to receive a higher amount in the distribution of television income, according to Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 on the centralized sale of rights. Half is distributed equally among the clubs, 25% for social implantation (stadiums and audiences) and the remaining 25% according to the classification of each team. Of this last part, the LaLiga champion receives 17%, about 60 million, which Madrid will enter for five seasons. Faced with this injection, Liverpool has been in the last moment as second in the Premier, which has won Manchester City.

In case of winning the Champions League, the meringue finances would shine more. If they win the final, they will pocket at least 4.5 million euros, which put the finishing touch to the sum of previous prizes, since each club accumulates income in the different stages of classification depending on the highest stage it reaches and the number of victories or ties obtained in the first phase. In this context, Real Madrid now accumulates 105.3 million, divided into 77.8 million from the competition and 27.5 million corresponding to the UEFA coefficient. It would remain to add a concept not yet quantified, the market pool, that is, the money from televisions in competitions of the European rector. The Champions League piggy bank is 291 million euros to be distributed among the clubs depending on the weight of each one in their markets.

Regardless of the result, the Champions League final will also favor its commercial business, underpinned by the agreement announced last week for 350 million with Sixth Street and Legends to operate the new Santiago Bernabéu for two decades. The white club will enter 70% of the profits from the stadium.

This boost will raise a billing that, globally, already exceeds Liverpool. Deloitte raises Real Madrid to second place in the ranking of European football income, with 645 million euros, as reflected in its Money League 2022 report, published in March. Liverpool was seventh, with 550 million.

The statistics are also in favor of Real Madrid. In the last decade, Spanish (eight times) and English (seven times) clubs account for two-thirds of the Champions League finalists, far ahead of the Germans (four times), Juventus Turin (two appearances) and PSG in 2020, as data compiled by AFP show.