Real Madrid members meet as ownership change considered

LONDON/MADRID/MILAN :Real Madrid hold the annual meeting of its members on Sunday with expectations rising that the Spanish football club may decide to allow new investors to take up to a 10 per cent stake.

Several media reports have said club President Florentino Perez plans to let outside investors join the roughly 100,000 members who own Real Madrid. Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters such a plan was under consideration.

Real Madrid did not respond to a request for comment.

Like Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna, Real follow a membership model. Some 2,000 of the club's members are selected as delegates to the annual meeting, where they can elect the club's president, scrutinise its annual accounts and vote to change its statutes.

An initiative to open the ownership to outside investors would follow a deal by U.S. fund Apollo this month to become the majority shareholder in Real's rival Atletico Madrid, the latest venture into soccer by private equity firms attracted by the sport's stable and predictable revenue streams.

Real are the only club in world football to have recorded revenues over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), according to Deloitte.

But Perez has warned that the membership model holds them back, especially when competing in the transfer market against rival European clubs such as Paris St Germain, Manchester City or Chelsea, owned by private equity, billionaires or oil-rich states.

Real Madrid have led the push to create a European Super League, with Perez arguing it would be a way for the club to stay competitive.

At last year's assembly, Perez broached the idea of holding a referendum on the reorganisation of the club's ownership structure that would "protect us from threats we face" - while