EL CLASICO:THIS TIME last year, a historic reconciliation agreement between rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah was announced. The streets of Ramallah were flooded with people celebrating. The flags billowing in the dead heat air were not, however, from Hamas or Fatah; they were Barca flags, unfurled to celebrate the goals Leo Messi scored to help his team edge Real Madrid 2-0 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final.
Barcelona and Real Madrid know no boundary when it comes to their fanbase and their selling power. Added together, they’ve about as many supporters as the population of North America. Barcelona has over 1,400 supporters’ clubs around the world, from Al Hoceima to Zutphen. Real Madrid has an even greater number.
In the annual Deloitte Football Money League, they top the accountants’ tally as the world’s richest clubs; Real Madrid have won its title for seven consecutive years, with Barcelona in second place for three years running, and it is a duopoly which is set to continue. Deloitte, it says: “expect a battle between Spain’s two superclubs for top spot in the Money League for the next few years at least”.
They both pull in revenues of almost half a billion a year, about €100 million more than third-placed Manchester United.
Real Madrid is run by Spain’s most successful businessman, Florentino Perez, a construction magnate who oversees a workforce of 135,000 across 41 countries. In 2001, he wiped off Real Madrid’s €225 million debt at a stroke by having the club’s old training ground successfully rezoned for planning permission. Four skyscrapers, the tallest in the city, shot up on the old site.
His most ambitious piece of planning was unveiled at the Bernabeu last month, alongside Zinedine Zidane, the club’s sports director, and Sergio Ramos. The €1 billion Real Madrid Resort Island in the United Arab Emirates will open for business in January 2015. It is expected to attract a million visitors a year, who, according to Perez, “will become part of the legend of Real Madrid”. They will get to experience luxury hotels, a club crest-shaped marina, a “sport port” and a 10,000-seater stadium with one side open to the sea.
Perez is a man who has an intuitive feel for the marketing potential of his livestock, a philosophy which informs his galactico recruitment policy. During his first stint as Real Madrid president, he audaciously added Luis Figo, Zidane, the Brazilian Ronaldo and David Beckham to the team’s roster over four consecutive summers. Cristiano Ronaldo is the centrepiece of his Second Coming, given that Kaka, his other recent galactico signing has struggled to recapture form after knee surgery last season. Real Madrid sell their replica jerseys at €80 a pop. They shift around 1.5 million jerseys a season. Barcelona sell around 1.2 million. Real Madrid reckon that they have already recouped the €100 million coughed up for Ronaldo’s signature in 2009 through shirt sales.
In late 2010, Barca’s club president, Sandro Rosell, a former Nike executive, agreed a sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation, which will bring it €30 million a year for five years. It was a controversial move, distasteful for the romantic among its members, as it ended over 100 years of the club going without official shirt sponsorship.
Barcelona have a reputation for growing players at their fabled La Masia academy, which churned out Messi, captain Carles Puyol and 11 other current first-team members. Barcelona is not slow to bolster their squad on the market, though. They outspent Real Madrid, for example, last summer. They also pay their charges well. According to the 2011 Global Sports Salaries Survey, Barca surpassed the New York Yankees as the best-paid team in the world. The average wage of a Barcelona first team footballer is €109,000 a week.
