Real Madrid were sixth on that list of wealthiest clubs when Madrid’s all-powerful president Florentino Perez’s first term as president began in 2000. The galacticos policy of investing in young players and discharging ageing ones worked so well (financially) that Madrid topped it from 2006 to 2015.

Since then, however, Manchester United, Barcelona and Manchester City have all had spells as the world’s biggest earning club, while others such as Paris Sant Germain (PSG) and Chelsea have been able to out-compete Madrid in spending on transfers and wages.

Perez has complained a lot about how “state-owned” clubs such as City and PSG have an unfair advantage over his ‘socios-owned’ club (socios are club members). But Madrid’s smart decision making has still meant they could continue to compete at the highest level, Garcia says.

“Real Madrid’s financial management under Perez has been very good,” he says. “They didn’t reinvent the wheel, but he arrived with a clear idea of modernisation, following trends in the global sports market. The galacticos policy worked well. But now it has changed and much more money is generated around the club itself, especially with the stadium.”

The €1.3billion Bernabeu remodelling has been over two decades in the planning. Even as work has continued through the 2023-24 season, the club projected its total season matchday revenue to grow from €140 million to €317 million. When all its expensive new VIP and executive areas are fully exploited, this number should increase significantly further in the coming years. Non-matchday use of the stadium, with its excellent city-centre location, is also a priority. Madrid’s hierarchy have talked of hosting over 50 non-sporting events each year.

Taylor Swift played two sold-out concerts at the stadium in the last week, generating an expected €5 million for the club. A regular-season NFL game will take place at the ground in 2025, another money-spinner. A huge underground car park is also forecast to be worth €470 million to the club over the next 40 years.

“We’ll see the major growth for Real Madrid on the stadium revenue side,” says Football Benchmark founder Andrea Sartori. “They now have a major competitive advantage over all other European clubs. Very soon the new Bernabeu will bring them over the €1 billion annual revenue mark.”

Winning this year’s Champions League will be worth around €80million in UEFA prize money to Madrid, including €20 million for winning the final (beaten finalists get €15.5 million). Lifting the trophy six times in the past 11 seasons has brought almost €500 million in prize money, and hugely valuable visibility on the biggest stages for sponsors.

Playing and winning so many finals is one reason why Madrid’s jersey is the most lucrative in the world, thanks to partnerships with Adidas (€120 million per year) and Emirates Airline (€70 million per year).

Another key part of Madrid’s club value is its global reach and brand. The club itself last September trumpeted being the first football team to top 500 million followers across all its official social media accounts (based on information from the social media analytical tool Blinkfire).

Madrid have 37 different official accounts in seven languages: Spanish, English, Arabic, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese. It also has a self-image, led by Perez, that builds extra engagement and motivation amongst its followers.

“Real Madrid has a very broad patrimony and global brand,” Garcia says. “They’ve worked on that, and benefited from that, a lot in recent years.

“Through social media, and also other media outlets, they’ve created a discourse, or an alternative reality, with followers who are more active and engaged. Madrid is the richest club in the world, the most successful, but at the same time: ‘everyone is against us, they all hate us’. I’ve never seen anybody as subjugated, and at the same time powerful, as Real Madrid.”

Such an ability to generate revenues saw Madrid named as the most valuable football club in the world by Football Benchmark with an ‘enterprise value’ of €5.1 billion, ahead of Manchester City FC (€4.9 million) and Manchester United (€4.8 billion).

The financing of the Bernabeu mega-project however means that not all such revenues can be invested back into the team. Perez told club socios at last November’s AGM that repayments will be around €60 million per annum for the next 30 years.

That does not include payments due to global investment firm Sixth Street, who provided €360 million towards the stadium project, in return for a reported 30 per cent of stadium-based revenue (excluding season tickets) over a 20-year period. United States private equity group Providence also provided €250 million in funding in exchange for a share of future sponsorship revenues (this was €26.6 million in 2022-23, per the club’s accounts).

Madrid strongly reject any comparison between these deals and Barcelona’s famous ‘levers’, which raised €867million for the Catalan club in exchange for a big cut of its future revenues.

“Madrid have their own ‘levers’, but it does not seem particularly concerning for the future,” Garcia says. “Although we’ll have to see if the Bernabeu actually hosts as many big events as they want.”

A potential complication from the stadium financing is UEFA’s interpretation of such manoeuvres. It fined Barcelona €500,000 last summer for using its ‘levers’ to avoid big losses in its annual accounts. Madrid could in theory face similar sanctions when UEFA releases its annual ‘sustainability’ calculations this summer.

Another potential cloud on the horizon, albeit one Madrid argue will eventually have a silver lining is their continued backing of a breakaway European Super League. Both UEFA and the Super League’s backers claimed victory after last December’s European Court of Justice ruling on the issue, and again after a similar ruling last week by a Spanish court.

The Super League’s organisers, based in Madrid and close to Perez, are continuing to press ahead with their planning for a new competition. The most optimistic of its boosters predict a launch as soon as September 2025, and hundreds of millions of euros in revenues to further strengthen Madrid’s finances.

Also incredibly strong is Perez’s position as Madrid president, after regular tweaks to club statutes to ensure ever tighter control of its policies. Perez has argued that this brings stability and protects the club’s socio-owned model. However, so much power centralised in one 77-year-old is problematic for some.

“The great potential shadow in Madrid’s future are the setbacks within the club’s democracy,” Garcia says. “Perez has modified the club’s statutes to take power away from the socios. It’s now very difficult to object to any board decision or to get any accountability.

“But maybe Madrid’s socios don’t care too much, as long as the team keeps winning.”

• The Athletic report