Introduction – Fourth-Place Atlético Earned More Than Third-Place Girona
In the 2023/24 La Liga final standings, Girona finished third and Atlético de Madrid finished fourth. Going by the table alone, you might expect Girona to have earned more in broadcast-rights revenue. The reality was the opposite.
According to the distribution report La Liga published on December 18, 2024, covering the 2023/24 season, Atlético received €117.89 million while Girona received just €49.80 million — a gap of roughly €68.09 million. For a one-place difference between third and fourth, it is a counter-intuitively large figure.
This number is difficult to dismiss as a mere anomaly. Rather, it is consistent with a system in which La Liga's broadcast revenue is not a simple prize-money ladder tied to a single season's standings, but a distribution mechanism that factors in sustained performance and each club's market value.
This article examines, through Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 (Real Decreto-ley 5/2015) and La Liga's official documentation, why "fourth-place Atlético" earned more broadcast revenue than "third-place Girona" in the 2023/24 season. The answer comes down to three factors. First, half of the revenue is split equally. Second, performance-based allocation uses a five-year weighted average, not a single season's finishing position. Third, the remaining 25% is determined by what the law calls "social reach."
TV Money Is Not a "Finishing-Position Prize"
The first thing to get right is this: La Liga's broadcast revenue is not a straightforward prize based on league position, as many assume.
Article 5(2) of Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 stipulates that broadcast-rights revenue from the league is first allocated 90% to the top division and 10% to the second division. Article 5(3) then specifies that within the top division's share, 50% is distributed equally, while the remaining 50% is split in two: half (25% of the total) is based on sporting results, and the other half (25%) on social reach.
In other words, final league position does not translate directly into a distribution ranking. The portion where finishing position has a direct effect is only a fraction of the whole.
Viewed through this framework, the 2023/24 "reversal" between Atlético and Girona is less surprising than it first appears. Girona's third-place finish was undoubtedly a sporting triumph. But the distribution system was never designed to evaluate a single season in isolation.
This is a defining feature of La Liga's model. The system heavily reflects not only "this season's results" but also "what a club has built over the preceding years."
The Gap Is Not Created by the 25% Performance Allocation Alone
Article 5(3) of Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 establishes three pillars for distributing the top division's revenue.
The first 50% is an equal share. This portion is divided more or less equally among the 20 clubs. Whether a big club or a newly promoted side, everyone starts on roughly the same footing here.
The next 25% is based on sporting results, and at first glance this might suggest that "position matters after all." It does — but what matters is not a single season's position.
Under the law, the top division's performance-based allocation is calculated as a weighted average of the five most recent seasons. The weights are: 35% for the most recent season, 20% for the one before, and 15% each for the three before that. The position-based distribution percentages are also codified: 17% for first place, 15% for second, 13% for third, 11% for fourth, 9% for fifth, declining by two percentage points through seventh, then tapering in increments of 0.25 to 0.5 points from eighth onward.
What this reveals is that even though Girona finished third and Atlético fourth in the 2023/24 season alone, a single year's result does not settle the question. A club that has been consistently near the top over five years holds an overwhelming advantage.
The remaining 25% is determined by what the law terms "social reach" (implantación social). In plain terms, this assesses how many spectators a club draws, how much broadcast value it generates, and how much it contributes to the league's commercial appeal. Under the provisions of Article 5(3)(b) 2.º, one-third of this allocation is based on season-ticket and average gate revenue over the past five seasons, while the remaining two-thirds is determined by each club's contribution to generating income from the commercialisation of television broadcasts.
In La Liga, then, sustained performance and sustained demand carry more weight than a single season's finishing position. The gap between Atlético and Girona in 2023/24 was a product of a system structurally inclined to produce exactly this kind of outcome.
Comparing Five Years of "Report Cards"
The numbers make the structural gap even clearer.
Over the five seasons used to calculate the 2023/24 distribution, Atlético's La Liga finishes were: third in 2019/20, first (champions) in 2020/21, third in 2021/22, third in 2022/23, and fourth in 2023/24. All five seasons were spent in the top four of the first division, including one title.
Girona's five-season record tells a very different story: fifth in the second division in 2019/20, fifth in the second division in 2020/21, sixth in the second division in 2021/22 (promoted via the play-offs), tenth in the first division in 2022/23, and third in the first division in 2023/24. Three of the five seasons were spent in the second tier.
The 25% performance allocation is derived from the weighted average of these five years. Feed Atlético's "1st, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th" and Girona's "Segunda, Segunda, Segunda, 10th, 3rd" into the same formula and the result is clear. The 2023/24 third-place finish carries a weight of 35%. But with second-division seasons included in the evaluation of the remaining four years — which together account for 65% of the weighting — the system offers Girona only limited uplift.
The implication of this five-year weighted design is that a single breakout season cannot dramatically shift a club's allocation. Conversely, a club that has been consistently near the top for several years does not see its revenue collapse after a single dip in finishing position.
Social Reach — The Accumulated Power of Being Watched
On top of the performance allocation, the 25% social-reach component also works in Atlético's favour.
In the 2023/24 season, Atlético's home ground, Civitas Metropolitano, had a capacity of around 70,460. Their average home attendance in La Liga that season was approximately 59,700. Girona's Estadi Montilivi has a capacity of roughly 14,600, and their average home attendance was about 12,500. In absolute terms, the ratio is roughly 4.8 to 1.
One-third of the social-reach allocation is based on season-ticket and average gate revenue over the past five seasons. A club filling some 60,000 of a 70,000-seat stadium every match week and a club drawing around 12,500 into a 14,600-seat ground operate on fundamentally different scales of ticket income.
The remaining two-thirds is defined in the law as each club's "contribution to generating income from the commercialisation of television broadcasts." The precise operational criteria are partly determined by league-approved standards, but the allocation can be understood as a metric that reflects sustained differences in broadcast value. Atlético, based in Madrid and a regular in the Champions League over many years, and Girona, whose international profile was still being established despite their historic third-place finish, would have seen a meaningful gap in this component as well.
It is therefore natural to view the approximately €68.09 million gap not as a product of the one-place finishing-position difference alone, but as an outcome of the entire distribution structure — encompassing performance allocation and social reach alongside the equal share.
A System That Is Tough on Emerging Clubs
Step back and a clear assessment emerges: La Liga's distribution system is, at least for emerging clubs, a demanding one.
If single-season results carried more weight, a club like Girona could translate a breakthrough into a sizable financial windfall and invest it in retaining or strengthening the squad for the following season. Under the current system, however, that reward comes gradually. A strong season does not immediately close the revenue gap.
For established powers, this acts as a safety net. As long as a club has built up years of competitive results and brand value, a single dip in finishing position will not trigger a sharp drop in broadcast income. For newcomers to the top tier, however, it becomes a barrier. Even a one-off sporting success leaves a financial gap relative to the established elite.
The system's rationale is not without merit. The league's overall broadcast value is not generated by a single season's table. It exists because clubs have drawn crowds over many years, built international recognition, and created stable viewing demand. In that sense, rewarding sustained performance and market value in the distribution is economically logical.
What the 2023/24 comparison between Atlético and Girona reveals, though, is that La Liga has adopted a system clearly tilted toward continuity.
Conclusion – La Liga Does Not Distribute on a Single Season's Finishing Position Alone
In the 2023/24 season, fourth-place Atlético de Madrid earned more broadcast revenue than third-place Girona. At first glance this looks like a reversal, but under the distribution framework it is a natural outcome.
Under Royal Decree-Law 5/2015, La Liga's broadcast revenue is split into 50% equal share, 25% five-year-weighted performance allocation, and 25% social reach. Within that structure, a single season's finishing position is important but not decisive. What matters more is sustained presence near the top, sustained ability to draw crowds, and sustained generation of broadcast value. The accumulation of several seasons is what drives higher distribution.
Girona unquestionably achieved something remarkable on the pitch in 2023/24. But La Liga's distribution system does not pay out on a single season's results alone. Built on a foundation of 50% equal share, it is designed to reward the competitive record and social reach that a club has accumulated over the preceding five years.
That Atlético so significantly out-earned Girona can be understood as the product of several years' worth of accumulated standing being converted into revenue through the architecture of the distribution system.