Madrid, Spain – Real Madrid fans divided over plans to allow private equity investors to purchase up to 10% of the club, according to club president Florentino Perez.
Los Merengues fans claimed that selling a portion of Real Madrid would mean selling the entire franchise, despite the fact that the latter is still the richest football team in the world.
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They also pointed out that Real Madrid’s membership policies have recently been changed, violating commitments to keep families members, and tarnishing its appeal.
Others praised the investor plan, which made sense of business and wouldn’t alter a hugely successful club that has won the Spanish domestic title 36 times and won 15 UEFA Champions League titles in a record-breaking amount.
Perez argued that it was “indispensable project” for the future of football to allow private equity investors, who frequently invest large sums of money in businesses that are not listed on public stock exchanges.
According to reports from The Associated Press news agency, Perez said he would discuss a statutory change with the club’s members on Sunday and that he would propose it during an extraordinary assembly to allow for the possibility of taking a minority stake in the club.
Although Real Madrid will continue to be a members’ club, he urged the establishment of a subsidiary where the 100 000 club members would always have complete control.
“On that basis, this subsidiary could simply incorporate a minority stake, such as 5%, never more than 10%, from one or more investors who are committed to investing for the very long term and willing to contribute their own resources.”
Perez argued that would be “the most eminently believable and clearest way to value our club.”
The 78-year-old added that it would allow the club to receive dividends from club members, which it is currently forbidden from doing.
Perez urged investors to “respect our values,” support the club’s expansion, and “help us protect our assets from external attacks.”
Real Madrid might be able to recoup its assets from investors, he claimed.
Perez repeatedly stated that the club’s members would never lose control.
He claimed that his proposal would allow the current 98,272 club members to be recognized as the true owners and have a future-determined membership limit.
No one will be able to alter the balance that guarantees Real Madrid’s independence and stability with the protection in place, Perez said. The members of today will be in charge of upholding our culture’s values and making sure our club continues to be a global football force for many generations to come.
The president of Real Madrid added that the change would “protect the club from external and internal attacks on our assets, and highlight their value in a way that we, as members, are all aware of the treasure we, as members, have in our hands” (p. 21).
Spanish club ownership versus English club ownership
Real Madrid is categorized as a nonprofit organization because its club members, or socios, own it, like Barcelona and a small number of other Spanish football clubs. This ownership structure has only ever existed for Real Madrid, which was established in 1902.
Large private investors can claim tax breaks as a result of this ownership structure, which also grants them the right to obtain a majority controlling stake in the clubs.
Real Madrid was named the world’s richest football team for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, with an estimated market value of $6.75 billion, as reported by the Forbes List. Additionally, it was the first club to generate $1 billion in revenue.
With the nonprofit status, Spanish clubs can keep some of their clubs’ traditions alive and have members who are active in the organizations.
The example of Joan Laporta, the current president of the other Spanish mega club, Barcelona, was cited by Graham Hunter, a British football journalist with a focus on Spanish football.
In seven years, Laporta went from being a member and a lawyer to becoming the club’s president, he said.
In stark contrast, football teams in England and the United States, including Inter Miami and Manchester United, can be owned by individuals, businesses, and occasionally even be acquired on public stock exchanges, creating more commercialized ownership structures.
It means that their club’s performances are frequently focused on more tactical things like profit maximization, whereas in Spain, fans are the owners of the club, not large private investors, giving them the opportunity to implement longer-term business plans.
This could help this well-known Spanish club to resemble its foreign rivals if Perez’s plan is implemented.
Should the new minority ownership laws be implemented, Bernard Arnault, the famous, multi-billionaire manager of Louis Vuitton, was named in Spanish media as a potential investor in the club.
Fans’ responses
Some Real Madrid supporters disapproved of Perez’s desire to open the club to large private investors.
Perez had previously promised to keep the club open to members, according to former season ticket holder David Garcia at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Florentino Perez misled the audience once more on Sunday, according to Perez. He informed Al Jazeera that he had informed us that he had informed us that members’ children or grandchildren had to be in order to stop a Russian or Chinese person from joining the club.
Garcia continued, noting that Chinese and other foreigners had recently been listed on membership lists and that the admissions procedures had changed frequently in recent years.
Former Real Madrid Veterans Pena vice president Alejandro Dominguez questioned why it was necessary to find additional investors to boost the finances of such a successful club.
“I don’t understand why we need more money given that we are already the world’s richest club”? he told Al Jazeera.
However, Fernando Valdez, a long-time supporter of Real Madrid and a member of the La Gran Familia supporters’ club, asserted that the change would not harm the club’s character.
“It would be worrying if we were selling off significant amounts of the club to raise money to compete with Paris Saint-Germain,” the statement read. But that is not how he said.
“We need to know more details about this, but it doesn’t seem like anything to worry about,” the statement read. Nothing is five percent or ten percent.
Perez’s ownership plan, according to David Alvarez, who writes about Real Madrid for El Pais newspaper.
“This will enable the club to return rewards to socios (club members).” The law currently forbids them from doing that. They aren’t trying to do that because they would need to sell a lot more stock to compete with the other large clubs in Europe.
Source: Aljazeera
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