:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57733517/852237408.jpg.0.jpg)
Bayern Munich often breaks records on the field. The club is now breaking financial records as well.
At its annual general meeting, the FC Bayern München AG group announced an all-time high turnover of €640.5 million euros ($759 million) and operating profit of €149.1 million ($177 million) for the 2016-17 season.
Pre-tax profit increased 22.2 percent to €66.2 million ($78.5 million) — €39.2 million ($46.5 million) after tax — despite exiting the Champions League at the quarterfinal stage and failing to reach the DFB-Pokal final last season.
Bayern deputy chairman Jan-Christian Dreesen said, “The outstanding profit situation and the associated increase in financial power allows FC Bayern to make the investment in our first-team squad necessary to ensure we remain competitive among the professional footballing elite in Europe.”
Match revenue brought €154.3 million ($183 million) to the club, sponsorship and marketing another €169.4 million ($201 million), media marketing €90.1 million ($107 million), and player transfers €52.6 million ($62 million).
Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said, “For FC Bayern, to state this clearly up front, it was a good year” and “thanks to these figures we’re in the same league as Real Madrid, Barca and Man United, not only in footballing terms but also financially. Continuity in the fields of sport and finance is an essential precondition for sustained success. All of us here can be proud of that!”
Rummenigge also praised sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic, who was appointed during the summer of 2017 when the “transfer window has set challenges for the whole of football.”
Rummenigge said Bayern will not be drawn into paying astronomical transfer fees despite record-breaking profits for the club.
“As before, FC Bayern München will unswervingly remain solid and serious. We will stick to our line, but we will also move on and develop,” Rummenigge said.
He also issued an appeal for an overhaul of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules, and described the new FC Bayern Campus as “an important building block for the future of our club.”