October 24 – German champions Bayern Munich have reported a record revenue for the 2016/17 season of €640.5 million. This was despite the club failing at the Champions League quarter final stage and failing to reach the German Cup final – together amounting to an estimated €25 million of lost revenue potential.
The club’s pre-tax profits jumped by 22.2% to €66.2 million. Post-tax profits were €39.19 million, an increase of 18.6% on the previous year.
Jan-Christian Dreesen, Bayern’s chief financial officer said on the club’s website: “Our failure to progress beyond the quarter-final of the Champions League against Real Madrid and not reaching the DFB Cup final cost us around €25 million. However, we were still able to make gains and remain one of the top clubs in Europe financially.
“What is more important than the increase in revenue is that our profit margin has increased. In this regard we saw doube-digit improvements in all important indicators. Revenue streams remain even, which leaves us confident going forward independent of any dependencies.”
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge emphasised the clubs as “a good example for legitimate and solid financial policies.” Since 2002 the club’s “revenue of €162.7 million has now quadrupled and membership numbers have trebled to 290,000,” he said.
Rummenigge took charge in 2002 and was swift to pat his own back maintaining that the figures show the decision to make the club a public limited company in 2002 was the right one and “was not just an important step in the construction of the stadium but also spot-on and pioneering.”
Rummenigge said the club’s focus was on winning the Bundesliga first and noted the increasing rise in player transfer fees. “We want to be German champions, and we also want to compete for the Champions League title.” For the current season Bayern “spent €100 million on new players, which is a lot of money from our perspective. We have a clear strategy and philosophy, which we continue to implement,” said Rummeigge.
He said the club’s new youth development centre will “bring through young talent, but we also have to continue finding and signing the right players in the transfer market.”
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