Billion dollar Barca. Club hit record revenues but profits edge down

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July 19 – Barcelona have posted record revenues for the 2017/18 season and financial year of  €914 million ($1.07 million). The club showed operating profit of €32 million, leaving net profit after tax of €13 million.

A club statement said that “the Board has valued the final balance of the year positively, and it’s in line with the Strategic Plan of the Club to reach 1,000 million euros of income in 2021.”

Evens so, with expenditure reaching €882 million for 2017/18, the net profit figure is lower than the €18 million achieved in 2016/17.

The reason for the high revenue figure was player transfers in a year that saw the record €200 million fee for Brazilian forward Neymar when he moved to Paris St-Germain during summer 2017. Barca spent that money and more on record signings Ousmane Dembele for €141 million and €158 million for Philippe Coutinho.

In contrast Manchester United is forecasting a revenue figure of up to £585 million ($762 million) for the fiscal 2018 year.

In its recent valuation report – ‘The European Elite 2018’ – KPMG’s Football Benchmark pointed to a 9% growth in valuation of the top 32 clubs in Europe. Football Benchmark uses its own criteria and algorithm to rank clubs with the growth in operating revenue (8% across the clubs for the year) being one of the factors, even after “eye-catching transfer deals and spiralling staff costs (which) have not prevented such clubs from registering a striking upward trend,” said the report.

In terms of overall valuation on their methodology the “top three places are again occupied by Manchester United FC (€ 3.26 billion), Real Madrid CF (€2.92 billion) and FC Barcelona (€2,78 billion).

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