Who owns the Spanish Footballing Giants?
People behind the successful billion dollar enterprises of Spanish football, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF.
Whenever there's a conversation about the most valuable sports teams in the world, there are two incumbent names Barcelona and Real Madrid. Weirdly enough if you try and look for the owners or beneficiaries on Google or any other search engine, you would not be able to ascertain the exact ownership model of these clubs.
The fan ownership model has been in existence in Spanish Football for a long time but in 1992, the Spanish government passed a law that caused the end of most fan-ownerships over football clubs. Through the mandate passed in 1992, it was necessary to register Football Clubs as Private Limited Companies BUT there were a few exceptions or grey areas in the ruling which was exploited by the Spanish giants.
So who does own these mega clubs and how are they the most valuable franchises of the football world? Let's find out.
FC Barcelona
Founded in the year 1899 by a group of Swiss, Spanish, and English footballers led by Joan Gamper, Barcelona is more than a football club for the autonomous community of Spain, Catalunya. Their motto "Mes Qué Un Club '', translating to More than a club, is quite literally a symbol of freedom for the people of Catalunya. So much so that, Barcelona is actually owned by its members and fans and does not follow the traditional private ownership model, as seen with multiple Premier League Clubs. Barcelona has an approximate number of 170,000 members, who collectively own the club. The members of FCB are referred to as "Socios", and these Socios form the governing body of the club.
The socios are responsible for electing the board of directors and President of the football club, who takes on the responsibility to run the club as usual. Each of these elected Presidents has a mandate of six years, after which a new president is elected for the Club. For a great part of the last century and this one, Barcelona has generally profited and grown substantially with this model and currently holds the crown of being the most valuable team in the game of football.
However, in the past few years, Barcelona has collected a substantial debt due to financial mismanagement and bad transfers, it still has one of the highest revenues amongst the top teams in football. Whether this model is sustainable going forward or not, only time will tell, but it has fared well for them in the past.
Real Madrid CF
In a nutshell, Florentino Perez does not own Real Madrid and not a single person owns the club. Currently, there are about 100,000 supporters who own the club. Socios pay a certain amount per year as a membership fee. Membership allows them to have voting rights, which is held in regular intervals for the election of board members and the President.
Socios have to follow the code of conduct laid out, failing to do so may invite penalty. On the other hand, the elected President has to submit a bank guarantee, Florentino Perez in 2009 had submitted a Bank Guarantee of around 57 Million Euros.
A president or any member cannot inject their personal income into the club, they shall rely on the sources by which the club makes money namely, Ticket Sales, Merchandise sales and television rights to name a few.
The covid-19 pandemic has wrecked them financially as ticket sales have slashed due to the lockdown phase in Europe and are relying majorly on player sales and reducing wage bills to make better moves in the transfer market this summer.
Not many nations follow such ownership model. Who owns your favourite Football Club? Let us know.
Till then, Adios!