FC Porto SAD shareholders approved accounts recording an €21.1 million loss

At 9:30 on 30 October 2026, FC Porto SAD shareholders gathered at Estádio do Dragão in Porto for the company’s annual general meeting. António Tavares chaired the meeting, where shareholders approved every item on the agenda, including the 2025/26 Integrated Annual Report and the proposed application of the year’s results.

The approved accounts record a €21.1 million loss, despite record attendance and merchandising sales. Commercial growth could not offset two larger pressures: player-sale proceeds fell below their recent average, and Porto estimated that missing the Champions League cost about €40 million in revenue. Costs excluding player registrations also rose sharply as the club invested in its squad and handled more activity. The financial picture is not uniformly worse: net financial debt fell by €29 million. But equity declined further into negative territory, leaving the accounts with a clear divide between improving supporter-linked sales and a weaker overall result.

The supporter figures were unusually strong. FC Porto SAD sold a record 31,665 annual seats, while average attendance at league matches reached 91 per cent of capacity. Membership also set a record, at 180,470. CFO José Pedro Pereira da Costa put occupancy above 90 per cent, saying it led Portugal’s top flight and ranked among the stadium’s highest recorded levels.

Those crowds and purchases fed into sharply higher sales. Merchandising revenue rose 31 per cent to €14.5 million, while ticketing increased 33 per cent to €18.1 million. Corporate hospitality was up 9 per cent and advertising and sponsorship rose 8 per cent; UEFA prize revenue also increased, by 39 per cent.

Yet operating revenue excluding player transfers barely moved: €150.3 million, against €149.5 million the year before. The comparison is affected by Club World Cup income in 2024/25. Excluding that revenue, operating revenue was up 13 per cent, or €17.8 million, year on year. The headline total therefore hides growth in the underlying business, but the stronger commercial lines did not produce a comparable rise in overall operating revenue.

The transfer market brought in €56 million from player registrations, below Porto’s recent average, the SAD reported. The club said it had not sold any player who had been among its most-used in 2024/25. That choice protected continuity in the squad, but also limited one of the biggest sources of income available to a football club.

The SAD said higher attendance and commercial income could not make up for the Champions League revenue gap. The gap matters because UEFA prize revenue rose by 39 per cent, yet the club still lacked the larger earnings it associated with participation in Europe’s leading competition.

At the same time, costs excluding player registrations climbed 22 per cent, from €147.1 million to €180 million. The SAD attributed the increase mainly to squad investment and greater activity, including more matches at Estádio do Dragão. Personnel costs reached €102.6 million, about 57 per cent of operating costs and 25 per cent higher than a year earlier.

The operating result before player-transfer activity shows the combined pressure most starkly: a €2.44 million surplus in 2024/25 became a €29.7 million loss in 2025/26, a deterioration of about €32.2 million. Transfer income, European revenue and rising costs all shaped the year beneath the commercial growth.

The reduction in net financial debt came with a change in its terms: FC Porto SAD said borrowings were spread over longer maturities and carried a lower average cost. That points to a less expensive and less immediate debt burden, although it does not describe the whole balance sheet.

At the end of 2025/26, the SAD reported assets of €523 million, up 3 per cent, and liabilities of €552.7 million, up 6 per cent. Liabilities therefore remained higher than the assets recorded in the accounts, and the gap widened over the year. Pereira da Costa said the liabilities financed asset growth, including stadium works, a future high-performance centre and squad investment; he added that the squad’s accounting value did not reflect its market value.

That difference is reflected in equity, the accounting value left after liabilities are subtracted from assets. Equity fell from negative €10.46 million to negative €29.67 million.

The choice to retain key players also has a sporting case. CFO José Pedro Pereira da Costa said Porto met its major objectives in 2025/26, winning their 31st national title and returning to the Champions League.

2026/27 is a year of consolidation in our sporting investment. More than investing in new players, we have invested in keeping our key players.

That priority sits alongside a different financial requirement: generating money from player sales. President André Villas-Boas said in 2025 that Porto would need to handle the transfer market carefully and make profits from sales to remain sustainable. The two aims pull in different directions: holding on to important players supports the team, while selling them can bring in funds.

The previous season shows how sharply Porto’s accounts can turn with player sales. In 2024/25, the club received €171.5 million in transfer fees, including money from Evanilson, Galeno and Nico González, according to Observador. After amortisation and impairment costs on player registrations, the balance was €66.1 million.

Porto’s accounts moved from a €21.06 million loss in 2023/24 to a recovery the following year, which helped avert a reported risk of breaching UEFA’s financial-sustainability rules. The SAD says the combined result attributable to the parent company across 2024/25 and 2025/26 was positive by €12.5 million, leaving it compliant with those rules.

The wider Portuguese picture is also one of rising income without guaranteed profits. Expresso’s review found that, from 2014 to 2023, the country’s three largest clubs recorded a combined net loss of €94 million. Their revenue excluding player transfers more than doubled, from €213 million in 2013/14 to €487 million in 2022/23; Porto’s cumulative losses over the period were €243 million.

At Estádio do Dragão, António Tavares chaired the meeting where shareholders approved every item on the agenda. The next test will come from the 2026/27 financial performance: whether the commercial momentum carries through into the SAD’s overall result. The accounts for the year now under way will provide that measure, beyond the approval of the year just ended.

• During 2026/27: whether occupancy remains above the previous season’s level.