Soccer is not for fans. The great industry that is the king of sports is led by companies, whose owners have the legitimacy to carry out operations and make the decisions that each one considers. However, there are exceptions in Spain (also some abroad), which are not minor, in Madrid and Barcelona (also in Bilbao and Pamplona), whose owners are the partners, since they did not have to convert into Public Limited Companies from 1999 through a law of the year 1990.
This week we have seen how the two greats of Spanish football went over their partners, who are the owners of the clubs, by announcing their participation in the , a competition devised by the great teams of the Old Continent to create a closed league and, above all, everything, with a part of the income from television rights. The result of this proposal, which seemed unilateral and without going back, has been the protests of the fans (especially the English) at the gates of their stadiums, causing the big six of the Premier, the Italians and Atlético de Madrid They renounced the Super League, in this fight.
Beyond what has been seen in recent days, these events bring back an old debate within the two great Spanish clubs and it is precisely the one related to their property. If you were one of the almost 100,000 members of Real Madrid and an investor offered you 21,021 euros for your share (keeping your seat on the field if you are also a season ticket holder), would you sell it? This figure is the result of dividing the estimated value of the merengue club among its members. In the case of their great rival, the culés partners would receive a significantly lower amount (12,260 euros) since, at the end of last season, the number of possible FC Barcelona shareholders exceeded 171,000. The love of some colors can demand a significant premium, which would surely make the price of the operation more expensive.
“The Super League brought with it greater income for these teams, which could multiply the current Champions League by four,” says Luis García Álvarez, manager of the Mapfre AM Behavioral Fund, which includes soccer clubs in its portfolio. “Like Disney or Netflix, it is an economic activity based on the generation of content, with high leverage, so higher revenues would have an even greater effect on margins and, therefore, on valuations,” adds García. “These revenues would be much more profitable since the clubs would not have to put their participation at risk every year; investors love stability and would be willing to pay more to escape uncertainty,” argues the expert. “Finally, there would also be greater financial control, with which margins would be highly protected. All this forms an attractive combination, which triggered investor interest and caused the rises that we saw on the Juventus or Manchester United stock markets, among others. “, he concludes.
Minimum of 2,100 million
The valuation above 2,100 million euros, both for Real Madrid and Barcelona come from the income data compiled last week by Forbes magazine, with respect to the 2019-2020 season, in which they billed 792 million dollars. . Using the current sales multiplier of Juventus as a reference, probably the most similar listed company to the Spanish, which is 2.65 times its sales (it has a capital of around 1,170 million euros), valuations come out that are close to 2,100 million euros ( would surpass Pharma Mar, Meliá and Indra in the Ibex 35).
Behind the two colossi, and with a difference of almost 400 million, would be Manchester United, which using this multiplier should be worth around 1.8 billion euros. However, it capitalizes on the New York Stock Exchange 2,191 million. The next most valuable would be Bayern and, behind, would be the rest of the English teams: Liverpool, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham. Atlético de Madrid would have a stock market value of 974 million euros, already lower than all the values of the Ibex 35.
In April 2018, Javier Tebas assured in an interview for the magazine Actualidad Económica that we would see Spanish clubs going public soon and that they were already advising some of them. Three years later there is no news that this is going to happen but, of course, it cannot be ruled out either. The first condition that the two greats of Spanish football would have to meet is to change their legal form and become Public Limited Sports Companies. And “they would have to comply with certain financial transparency standards, so they would have to improve a lot in this aspect,” explains Ángel Pérez, an analyst at Renta 4.
“It would be normal for sport, and football in particular, to be articulated and rationalized in this way, although it would be necessary, first, a fairer distribution between the different clubs, because now there are many differences,” adds Cándido Muñoz, professor of Applied Economics at the Complutense University.
“They would be listed and valued, above all, for their ability to generate income in the short or medium term,” explains Muñoz, who acknowledges that “the debt will obviously weigh on their valuation and they should stop being financed and supported by public bodies, as is the case now in many cases”.
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