Real Madrid, the record LaLiga champions, have reportedly appointed Bernd Reichart, the former chief executive of A22 Sports and the public face of the scrapped European Super League project, as the head of its commercial team.
Reporting directly to club chief executive José Ángel Sánchez, Reichart’s role as business director will see him lead the club’s sponsorship and commercial activities. Reichart’s expertise stems mostly from the media space.
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Prior to taking up his role as head of A22 in July 2022, Reichart was the chief executive of German commercial TV heavyweight RTL, a role he held from January 2019 through to his departure in December 2021.
Reichart spent close to nine years at RTL Deutschland, joining as the chief executive of the RTL-owned VOX channel and a member of the management board from 2013, until rising to the role of group chief executive in 2019.
Perhaps crucially for Real Madrid, before joining RTL’s main unit, he was head of investor relations and then managing director for multi-channel operations at Spain’s Atresmedia group, the owner of the Antena 3 and LaSexta channels, among others.
In the early 2000s, he also spent a period as manager for marketing and sales at the commercial agency Sportfive, which recently renewed its position as the authorized VIP tickets partner for Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium, and the distributor of its Real Madrid TV platform.
Real Madrid and Reichert, of course, have a public and controversial relationship.
From the outset of the now defunct European Super League proposal, Real Madrid, the record winners of the UEFA Champions League, were the project’s most vocal supporters.
Real Madrid were the final team to de-commit from the European Super League project, and only did so long after most other teams had departed.
While the project collapsed almost instantly in April 2021, leaving all but three teams, Real Madrid only finally withdrew in February 2026, placing the club at odds with the European soccer hierarchy in the process.
The project’s most vocal critic, on the other hand, was LaLiga president Javier Tebas, a fact that makes Reichart’s appointment all the more contentious, although the two are not likely to be at odds just yet.
For Real Madrid’s part, Reichart joins a club that is in rude health on the commercial front.
In July, Real posted record revenues for the 2025-26 season, topping the €1 billion ($1.1 billion) mark for the third consecutive season.
The LaLiga club’s revenue, excluding player transfers, reached €1.22 billion, up 3.1% from the 2024-25 financial year.
This growth comes primarily from the club’s business units, with stadium revenue up 11% and marketing revenue climbing 6%, “driven by the renewal of the main sponsorship contracts and the addition of new sponsors.”
Since 2018-2019, Real Madrid’s income has grown 61%, but 93% of that growth has come from revenue managed directly by the club.
In terms of recent Real Madrid commercial activity, last week the club brought in food delivery service Uber Eats as a new partner in a deal that will run through mid-2029.
