Who Owns Real Madrid?
Self-styled as 'Los Galacticos' and revered as one of the most glamorous, ambitious and big-spending clubs in the history of world football, Real Madrid have developed a powerful legacy in the modern era. Time and time again, the Spanish giants have managed to attract the very best men's players in the world, with stars ranging from Luis Figo to Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema to Kylian Mbappe all being tempted by the status, power, and jaw-dropping financial might of this historic club.
The drive to establish Real Madrid as the most alluring, high-profile team in the modern game has largely been led by one man. And in this article, we'll be diving deep into who that person is, detailing who owns Real Madrid, who is responsible for running the club in the modern day and what the major decisions and events they've presided over are. Once we're done, you'll have strong understanding of how the Real Madrid ownership works and who is in control of the money the club spends each year.
A Brief History Of Real Madrid
Real Madrid is the most successful football club in the history of Spanish professional football, and arguably the most successful in the entire world. Founded in 1902 simply as Madrid Football Club, their 'Real' (meaning 'royal') moniker was added by the Spanish monarchy in 1920, and when the first national league season took place in 1929, the club was a founding member. However, they failed to show any real domestic dominance until the 1950s, following the rebuilding of the club by the legendary late president Santiago Bernabeu (who Madrid's stadium is named after today).
Having recruited world-class players such as the Argentina forward Alfredo di Stefano and the Hungarian bagsman Ferenc Puskas, Bernabeu led the club to an incredible 12 league titles between 1953/54 and 1968/69. The team dazzled La Liga with scintillating attacking football, and during this period, Madrid also won the first five European Cups consecutively, beating a host of Europe's best teams in successive finals before Benfica finally took their crown in 1960/61. And this wasn't the end of Los Blancos' European success; today, they remain the most decorated team on the continent, with 15 European Cup triumphs to their name including a record three consecutive trophy lifts in 2016, 2017 and 2018. In terms of all-time European Cup wins, they're miles ahead of the rest of the pack, with runners-up Milan having won seven trophies.
Bernabeu passed away in 1978 and throughout much of the 1980s, Madrid failed to reach the heights they had in previous decades. The 1990s saw the signing of several new high-profile foreign players including Roberto Carlos, Clarence Seedorf, Nicolas Anelka and Steve Mcmanaman, and this led to some success both domestically and in Europe. But it wasn't until the turn of the century and the arrival of Madrid's current president that the Galacticos era truly began, and the list of stars wearing the famous Madrid white grew exponentially, with the club acquiring Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Fabio Cannavaro and later Ronaldo, Kaka, and many more. So who was it that led this charge?
Who Owns Real Madrid?
Many people think that the owner of Real Madrid is the Spanish business tycoon Florentino Pérez. However, this is not strictly true — Pérez is the club's president and main figurehead in the public eye, but he does not own Real Madrid. Surprisingly, for one of the richest sports clubs on the planet, Real Madrid is in fact owned by its fan members, who are also known as "socios".
In Spanish football, "socios" are club members who pay an annual subscription fee (currently €149 for adults and €50 for children at Madrid) in exchange for voting rights in presidential and board elections. Other perks include ticketing benefits and a general feeling of involvement in the democratic running of the club. Two existing socios must vouch for you if you want to become a socio yourself, and in total there are more than 90,000 people who have this type of club membership at Los Blancos. Real Madrid is one of four socio-owned clubs in Spain, the others being Barcelona, Athletic Club and CA Osasuna.
Because of their status as a socio-owned club, Real Madrid cannot benefit from the kind of generous ownership investment that uber-wealthy clubs like PSG or Manchester City utilise on a regular basis; instead, any spending must be dictated by the club's revenue from TV broadcasting, matchday and merchandising rights, and commercial deals. Thankfully for the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona, they are able to rake in a huge amount of cash from these enterprises.
It's important to note that in order to become president or join the board of directors at Real Madrid, you have to be able to fulfill a serious financial obligation; essentially, each director or president needs to be able to provide 15% of annual turnover as a bank guarantee every season, in order to step in in the case of a serious financial collapse. In other words, to become president of a club like Real Madrid you need to be extremely wealthy. This brings us to the person currently occupying this role: Florentino Perez.
How Did Florentino Pérez Become President?
Back in 2000, the Real Madrid socios elected Florentino Pérez as owner of the club. The CEO of engineering and construction company Grupo ACS since 1997, Pérez is reportedly worth $2.6 billion today, according to Forbes. Initially, he was able to persuade Madrid fans to elect him as president thanks to a series of promises centred mainly on transfer policy.
Coming up against the incumbent president Lorenzo Sanz, who had been in control of the club since 1985, Pérez managed to get the socios on-side by underlining the club's financial mismanagement and promising to sign the world-class forward Luis Figo from El Clasico rivals Barcelona. He delivered on this manifesto pledge, splashing €62 million on the Portuguese international and kickstarting an era of big spending on 'Galacticos' players such as Zinedine Zidane, Michael Owen, and Robinho.
When the Real Madrid president won his first election it was with a healthy vote share of 55%, but these headline-grabbing transfer deals helped him secure an enormous portion of the votes in the next election in 2004, when he was re-elected with a whopping 94.2% share.
Ultimately, once the socios have elected a president, that president is the person who has all the power, and these massive electoral endorsements from the supporters have only strengthened Pérez's position at the club. The fans are involved in the process of electing who runs the club, but other than that any spending and club decision-making is out of their hands. This begs the question: in the eyes of the Los Blancos fanbase, has Pérez done a good job?
What Is Pérez's Real Madrid Legacy?
With 36 league titles compared to Barcelona's 27, Real Madrid are the most decorated club in Spain's history, and there's no denying that Pérez has helped contribute to this success — since 2000, Madrid have won seven La Liga titles, as well as seven UEFA Champions League trophies and numerous domestic cups. They have become one of the world's richest clubs and their commercial power and worldwide appeal has grown exponentially.
Additionally, Pérez has also presided over a major renovation of the club's home ground, the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, and while they have failed to get a firm, consistent grip on the La Liga title for any notable period of time, their European displays have become the stuff of legend, with repeated Champions League victories helping to lay the foundations for the arrival of world-beating stars like Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe in the last couple of years.
However, Real Madrid's president has also consistently courted controversy during his long period at the helm. He has been described as the "driving force" behind the hugely contentious European Super League project, which sparked angry fan protests in 2021 when it was revealed that some of Europe's richest clubs had been plotting a breakaway league behind the scenes.
As recently as November 2023, Pérez argued that the proposed Super League could mark a "new era for the good of football", but many fans are of the opinion that his objective is simple: to guarantee annual income for Europe's biggest clubs at the expense of sporting integrity, by removing the need to qualify for the Champions League each season. Decried as an 'elitist' project, the European Super League has turned many people against Pérez.
Next year, Real Madrid socios will take part in the latest presidential election, with Florentino Pérez expected to seek a sixth re-election after running unopposed in 2021. The 77-year-old has been president of the club for a total of 21 years (the only gap in his 20th-century dynasty coming between 2006 and 2009), and he has achieved a huge amount during this time. However, he has also made some enemies, and in recent months there have been calls for a suspension of the upcoming election amid claims that there are "serious irregularities" within the electoral process. Criticisms like this, added to by the controversy surrounding the European Super League, complicate the legacy of Real Madrid's long-standing president. But whatever your opinion on Pérez, there's no denying that he has had an enormous impact on European football during the last 25 years.
Want to find out more about this historic Spanish football club and the foundations that have allowed them to achieve consistent European success? Check out our in-depth guide to the Ciudad Real Madrid training ground.