Real Madrid taking eye off the ball

Euroscene: These are heady times at the world's most famous soccer club. We are talking about Real Madrid, of course, a side whose current shortcomings on the pitch are matched only by its apparent success in the market place.

After suffering the indignity of a 2-1 home loss to arch-rivals Barcelona on Sunday night, the mighty Real all-stars are now looking at a seasonal whitewash. With four games to play in Spain, Real are in second place, one point behind leaders Valencia and four points clear of third-placed Barcelona.

Could it be that in a season when they have already lost the Spanish Cup final to Real Zaragoza and been eliminated from the Champions League by Monaco that Real will now see a 30th league title success slip through their fingers?

Or will that failure matter anyway given that, according to club President Fiorentino Perez Rodriguez, Real will end the 2003/'04 season with a €58 million profit and with approximately €140 million to spend on purchasing the latest mega-stars (Henry, van Nistelrooy, Totti et al).

By some accounts, Real Madrid may now be the richest club in the world. We use the conditional because there are those who are not entirely convinced by the figures presented by President Perez in this club-election year.

What is certain, however, is that Real have become the living embodiment of "Global FootBiz".

Marketing and merchandising Real-linked products, such as team shirts, will yield €80 million this season. Ronaldo leads the shirt league table, with 800,000 of the Brazilian star's replica jerseys sold in the last two years as opposed to 450,000 this season alone by David Beckham, with Zinedine Zidane on 300,000 and Luis Figo on 280,000.

TV rights at Real are worth €70 million this season, whilst box-office receipts and season-ticket sales at the Bernabeu (98 per cent full on average) will come to €60.3 million.

Furthermore, the club benefits from two handsome "technical" sponsorship deals. Firstly, there are the kit suppliers, adidas, who contribute €12 million per annum thanks to a contract that has already been renewed on an increased deal through to 2012. Secondly, there are the shirt sponsors, Siemens, who also pay €12 million per annum.

You put that lot together, argues Perez, and you can afford to pay Raul, Beckham, Ronaldo, Zidane and Figo annual wage packets of approximately €6 million each, after tax.

Indeed, by the standards of some of Serie A's big spenders, Real are doing well on the remuneration front since their total wage packet accounts for only 57 per cent of turnover. In contrast, wages collectively account for 85 per cent of turnover at Serie A's 18 clubs.

Given such rosy accounts, does it matter that Real have bombed out of the Champions League and could lose their league title? Of course, it does. Starting with an away match against Deportivo La Coruna next weekend and ending with a home clash against Real Sociedad on May 23rd, the last day of the season, Real face an uphill battle to catch Valencia.

Not for nothing, Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard argued on Sunday his side are still in with a shout, given that he hopes both Valencia and Real will crack under pressure over the next month. Time will soon tell.

Real might do well to stop counting their coffers and ask themselves what has gone wrong this season. We all know the team is hopelessly unbalanced, playing de facto without a defence. Yet, are there other problems? Are the Real stars just a tad short on motivation?

Or is it true that last summer's pre-season tour of the Far East, undertaken at a time when the side should have been training hard, has come home to roost, leaving the team short of fitness and stamina on the final stretch?

In that context, we note that Perez has already penned in a six-match, pre-season tour of the USA, China and Japan later this summer, Euro 2004 notwithstanding. Such tours might not represent the ideal seasonal preparation but this one is expected to earn Real €30 million.

As the man said, Global FootBiz is Global FootBiz.