Real Madrid revenue hits record €520.9m Spurred on: Gareth Bale and Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez celebrate the Spurs player's signing on with the Spanish club for €100m on 2 September at the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid Real Madrid capped a week in which it paid a world-record €100m for Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale by announcing a 52 per cent increase in net profit and a fall in debt. The Spanish club, the first sports club to surpass annual revenues of €500m, increased income last season by 1.3 per cent to a record €520.9m. In contrast with the transfer window just completed, Real's player trading last summer was subdued, with the big-money signing of midfielder Luka Modrić and others offset by sales. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 2.4 per cent to €150.2m, while the club made an operating profit of €55.7m and net profit of €36.9m. Net debt was cut by 27.4 per cent to €90.6m, and the ratio of staff costs to income rose to 47.2 per cent. The Bale deal will make a dent in Real's finances, despite the sale of other star players, or galácticos - rare events in the club's recent history. Bale's purchase made Real Europe's biggest summer spenders, with a total outlay of about €180m. Through the sale of players including Mesut Özil to Arsenal and Gonzalo Higuaín to Napoli it recouped in the region of €115m. The free transfer of Kaká to AC Milan also took the Brazilian's high wages off Real's books. Real's ability to pay huge sums for players and big salaries over several years often raises suspicions among rivals. Bale's purchase also comes at a time when football finances across Europe are under scrutiny from Uefa, the governing body, which has introduced financial controls to ensure clubs live within their means. Like other Spanish companies before the country's financial crisis, Real enjoyed easy access to credit, allowing chairman Florentino Pérez, a construction magnate, repeatedly to break the club's transfer record to deliver signings such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane. However, the bursting of Spain's construction bubble brought down large parts of the country's banking sector, including Caja Madrid, the local savings bank that had helped finance Mr Pérez's largesse. Nevertheless, the club is steeped in history and unquestionably has a global reputation. This enables it to command high prices for TV rights and commercial deals. Real and Barcelona together make up more than 40 per cent of the total value of Spanish football's domestic TV rights, which are sold individually. Real's new five-year shirt deal with Emirates Airline, worth about €30m a year, is among the best in Europe, though well short of the record Manchester United deal with Chevrolet. But Real's financial success has resulted in the club falling under the scrutiny of the European Commission, which is probing whether its tax status and a land agreement with the Madrid city council constituted unfair state aid. In 1996, the club struck a deal with the city council to redevelop its Santiago Bernabéu stadium, and to build a hotel and shopping complex on its training ground. Real is one of only four clubs in Spain allowed to remain member-owned after a 1990 law change that obliged all other clubs to become limited companies. The member-owned clubs - Real, Barcelona, Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao - were allowed to keep not-for-profit status, giving them lower tax burdens than their competitors.