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Real Madrid have announced that the club suffered a €300 million loss in revenue in the COVID-19 plagued 2020-21 season, according to Marca.
Real Madrid are one of the biggest football clubs in the world, both commercially and historically. However, the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them rather harshly.
The pandemic led to the temporary suspension of the 2019-20 La Liga season in March last year. Even though the league eventually resumed, fans were no longer allowed inside the stadiums.
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The loss in revenue due to the absence of fans in the stands has been substantial. Madrid's financial situation was further complicated by the fact that they had undertaken a massive project to rebuild their home stadium - the Santiago Bernabeu.
According to reports, the renovation project for the Bernabeu is supposed to cost Real Madrid an amount in the region of €279 million. They have taken a loan for this project for which €375 million was sanctioned on 30 June, 2021.
Despite the loan amount being sanctioned last month, the finances released by Real Madrid do not take the renovation project cost into account.
Overall, Real Madrid announced that the club have managed to make a post-tax profit of €874,000 despite the significant loss in revenue. The reason behind this is the smart financial handling by Real Madrid's top management.
The club did not sign a single new player for the 2020-21 season. On top of that, they sold Achraf Hakimi and Sergio Reguilon and released a few other players on loan, which significantly lowered their wage bill.
What was Real Madrid's official statement?
Understandably, the club were happy with their efforts to return a profit but made it clear that they are unlikely to recover from the pandemic affected situation anytime soon.
They also took a subtle dig at the UEFA in their official statement which read:
"The club are one of very few big European clubs to have not incurred losses over the last two years. According to a UEFA study, the operating losses accumulated by European clubs between 2019/20 and 2020/21 will be close to six billion euros."
The dig at the UEFA, against whom Real Madrid are currently at war, came due to the European Super League (ESL) fiasco.
A few months earlier, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez had co-founded the European Super League, along with a few other famous European clubs, to save their respective sides from the current financial climate.
The elite league would have seen most European clubs, barring the handful selected, become obsolete or insignificant. Naturally, the move was vehemently opposed and shut down by the UEFA, much to the dismay of Perez.
