In the case of many football fans out there, club support, arguments and slight knowledge is all there is for them about football and football clubs and nothing more. The richest football club is sure to be a world known club, with a lot of fans, support and world class players on their payroll. Also, it is sure to be in one of the major leagues in world football, and with a trophy museum full of international, domestic, and continental trophies. So which club exactly is the richest club in the world? Don’t blink while we know more about REAL MADRID FC, the world’s richest football club.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, Real Madrid has gone on from one of the popular clubs in the world to one of the richest clubs, then on to become the richest club in the world. The team has traditionally worn a white home kit since inception and just so you know, especially if you’re a real Madrid fan, the word Real is Spanish for Royal and was bestowed to the club by King Alfonso XIII in 1920 together with the royal crown in the emblem.
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Santiago Bernabéu, an 85,454 capacity stadium in downtown Madrid is where the team plays its home matches since 1947. The club’s worth of $3.4 billion excluding signed deals and club investments makes it the richest and the most valuable football team in the world and with annual revenue of around €549.5 Million; it is still the world’s highest-earning football club. Real Madrid football club is one of the most widely supported teams in the world, and is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never been relegated from the top division, along with Athletic Bilbao and arch rivals Barcelona.
The club holds many long-standing rivalries, most notably El Clásico with Barcelona and the El Derbi madrileño with Atlético Madrid. Real Madrid established itself as a major force in both Spanish and European football during the 1950s and has gone on since to compete at the highest level. The club is considered by many to have at different times, hosted a lot of the world best players, including the likes of Frenec Puskas, Santamaria, Ronaldo, Raul, Zidane, Owen, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
The sale of the training ground for office buildings between 2000 and 2006, cleared Real Madrid’s debts of €270 million and enabled the club to embark upon an unprecedented spending spree which brought big-name players to the club. With exponential growths in marketing potential around the world, especially in Asia, the club’s management came under increasing criticism from fans and critics for being too focused on marketing the Real Madrid brand and not enough on the performances of the team on the pitch.
By September 2007, Real Madrid was considered the most valuable football brand in Europe by BBDO. In 2008, it was ranked the second-most valuable club in football, with a value of $1.28 billion, only beaten by Manchester United, which was valued at $1.33 billion. During the 2009/2010 season, Real Madrid made €150 million through ticket sales, which was the highest in top-flight football. In 2010, Real Madrid had the highest turnover in football worldwide, with Forbes evaluating its worth to be around $1.323 billion, ranking them second after Manchester United.
In 2014/2015, according to Forbes, Deloitte, and other credible club financial ranking sources has disclosed Real Madrid’s recorded revenue of $890 million in the same period, to put them first in the world’s richest club ranking.