Real Madrid's revenues exceeded €500M ($659M) for a second consecutive season in '12-13, rising 1.3% to €520.9M ($687M), according to Iain Rogers of REUTERS. The club made a net profit of €36.9M ($49M), up from €24.2M the previous season. Real "topped Deloitte's annual ranking" of the world's richest football clubs for an eighth consecutive year on the accounting firm's list for the '11-12 season published in January (REUTERS, 9/8). GOAL's Stefan Coerts wrote Madrid's net debt dropped by 27.4% to €90.6M ($119M) in total -- a decrease of more than €34M ($45M) (GOAL, 9/6). The AP reported "these figures do not include Madrid's transfer business from this summer," topped by its world-record payment of €100M ($132M) for Gareth Bale (AP, 9/6). ESPN's Dermot Corrigan wrote the results will be hailed as evidence of the commendable financial stewardship of team President Florentino Perez, "who himself regularly compares the club's current healthy finances with the serious difficulties it faced when he returned to the post" in June '09. Perez will give more details on how these results were achieved, "and is unlikely to face much serious questioning of his handling of club affairs" when he speaks at Madrid's AGM on Sept. 22 (ESPN, 9/6). AL JAZEERA's Lee Wellings opined, "I wonder if this will be the last time Real Madrid, whether Perez or another President, manage this illusion of having money." Bale "will be their last world record signing." It is "naive to think that shirt sales, sponsorship, even the wave of fresh interest across Asia that Bale's signing generated," translates into the $100M plus needed to sign him (AL JAZEERA, 9/6).
