Playing with Our Friends and Making Money: Real Madrid FC’s Economic Model and the Impact of International Friendly Matches, 1955–1963

Abstract

This paper analyzes how Real Madrid Football Club took advantage of the enormous international prestige that they gained thanks to their victories in the first five editions of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup (between 1956 and 1960). to arrange a large number of international friendly matches that generated great income. Real Madrid created a new strategy by means of friendly matches and international tours that favoured an economic model centred on signing the best players of the day, as a way to attract fans to their stadium and to achieve new victories. Having access to the documentation of the Real Madrid archive has allowed the author to rely on primary sources which support these arguments, sources that hitherto had not been used. In the same way, this research demonstrates the important economic benefits that this activity brought to the Franco dictatorship.