Who Owns Real Madrid?

Real Madrid is owned by its members. The club is not a company and has no shareholders: it is an association owned by its socios, more than 90,000 of them, who elect the president every four years. Nobody can buy it, because there is nothing to buy — no shares exist. It is one of only four clubs in Spain permitted to keep this structure. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Real Madrid?

Real Madrid Club de Fútbol is a members’ association under Spanish law. Its owners are its socios, who pay an annual membership fee and hold voting rights in club elections.

There is no controlling shareholder, no parent company and no investor. Florentino Pérez is the club’s president, not its owner — an elected officer, re-elected in 2026, who functions much as a chief executive would while ownership stays with the membership.

The club has no Companies House presence, because it is Spanish and because it is not a company anywhere. Any UK-registered entity carrying the name will be a commercial subsidiary or a licensee, not the club.

Current owners and shareholding structure

There are no shares, so there is no shareholding structure. What exists instead is a membership register and an electoral system.

• More than 90,000 socios hold membership rights.
• Members vote in presidential elections held every four years. Pérez was returned in 2026 with around 65% of votes cast.
• Candidates for the presidency must meet strict conditions, including a long period of prior membership and the provision of financial guarantees against the club’s budget.
• Members also elect an assembly which approves the accounts and major decisions.

That guarantee requirement is the practical constraint. It means only a wealthy candidate can realistically stand, which is why member ownership at Real Madrid has not prevented a small circle of businessmen from dominating the presidency.

Key controlling people and entities

Pérez, a construction executive, has been president from 2000 to 2006 and continuously since 2009. He has more practical control over the club than most owners on this site exercise over theirs — but he holds no equity, cannot sell the club and can be voted out.

No investment fund, state or individual owns any part of Real Madrid. Proposals to bring outside capital into the club’s commercial operations have been discussed and have divided the membership, and any such move would require member approval.

The club’s stadium and its commercial businesses sit under the association, not under a separate owner.

Ownership history

The club was founded in 1902 as a members’ association and has never been anything else.

The decisive moment came in 1990, when Spain’s Sports Law required professional football clubs to convert into sociedades anónimas deportivas — sports public limited companies — with shareholders, after years of accumulated debt across the game. Four clubs were exempted because their finances were sound: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna.

Every other club in Spain has shareholders as a direct consequence of that law. Those four kept their members. It is the reason Valencia could be bought by Peter Lim and Real Madrid could not be bought by anyone.

The “Royal” in the name comes from a title granted by Alfonso XIII in 1920, which is a patronage, not an ownership interest — the Spanish crown has never owned the club.

Related clubs or investment group

Real Madrid has no parent group and no sister clubs. It cannot participate in the multi-club ownership models spreading across European football, because it has no owner to hold stakes elsewhere.

That is a genuine competitive difference. Clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United sit within groups or alongside other clubs under common owners, as this site’s profiles of them set out. Real Madrid sits alone by construction.

Sources and verification

This page rests on the club’s own statutes and published election results, and on Spain’s Sports Law and its exemption for the four member-owned clubs. Real Madrid publishes annual accounts to its assembly, which is a fuller disclosure than most privately owned clubs make.

No UK register is relevant, and no Companies House filing establishes anything about the club’s ownership. The membership figure is the club’s own, and the practical influence of the presidency is a matter of judgement rather than record — what is documented is that the president is elected and the members are the owners.