Shrapnel from the Mbappe bombshell hits Real Madrid's coffers: China's anger inflicts heavy financial losses on Real Madrid
Crisis victims on the rise
The fallout from Kylian Mbappé's crisis has not stopped at the France and Real Madrid star alone. It has spread to others.
A widely shared video showing Mbappé joking about the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong sparked a huge wave of anger in China. Critics accused him of offending national sentiment and overstepping acceptable limits in his treatment of historical figures.
Mbappé apologised for the incident, and so did Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish league association. The association took a significant hit of its own after China's CCTV channel suspended its broadcasts of the Spanish league and the matches featuring the Real Madrid forward.
His contract with Real Madrid was historic, letting him keep nearly 80% of the revenues from his image rights.
According to Forbes magazine, the forward earns around 100 million euros a year, 30 million euros of which come from sponsorship deals.
Several Chinese companies, among them the Dongpeng beverage group and the dairy firms Mengniu and Milkground, have ended their commercial partnerships with the Real Madrid player. The club now looks set to lose its share of those profits.
The crisis rumbles on, and its full impact hinges on how Mbappé's apology lands. It is also hurting Real Madrid in their own market in China, where the club takes between 10 and 15% of international merchandise sales and Mbappé's shirt is the best-selling product.
Campaigns have sprung up on the main Chinese football forums, such as Dongqiudi, with fans openly refusing to buy Mbappé's official products.
RedNote, the Chinese platform that held cooperation deals and ran advertising campaigns with the Real Madrid forward, has started pulling content related to him.
Gauging the effect of these campaigns on Chinese consumers is difficult, just as it is in Spain, where fans also flock to the Santiago Bernabéu to buy the forward's shirt.
The state broadcaster's decision to drop Spanish league matches hits Real Madrid too. League income will fall, and that means smaller payouts for the clubs of the first and second divisions.
Each club's income also depends on its viewership share, and Real Madrid overtook Barcelona in revenues last season.
The Spanish league distributed 1.432 billion euros, of which Real Madrid had received around 160 million euros. That figure will now fall noticeably.
