According to the Guardian, Real take half of Beckham's private deals- http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,980324,00.html I was really surprised to see that Beckham would agree to hand over half of what he earned from endorsements to Real Madrid while playing at Real Madrid and take a pay cut. As a player for Real, I would think the club would already have the rights to use his image for marketing purposes for the team and possibly the team's sponsors. I can understand that the team might receive part of the endorsement if Becks is pictured wearing Real's uniform or associated with the team in an ad. However, I don't see how they can reasonably argue that they are owed any money from Beckham's endorsements outside the team. If anyone had a reasonable claim, it's ManU. I understand that this money is a great deal for the club. What I can't understand is why any professional athlete in his right mind would agree to it. I couldn't imagine Michael Jordan giving the Bulls 50% of his endorsement money from Nike. From a business standpoint, I think Beckham is making a mistake. He's extremely marketable, and if he was smart, would fight to control all rights and money from use of his image outside of campaigns related to Real Madrid; especially since his wife is trying to catapult the two of them into movies and other media projects. With endorsement money cut by 50% and a pay cut, I hope Posh Spice is ready to curtail some of her shopping sprees.
as far as I know, this is only for new contracts that he signs whilst at Real. existing ones are not affected. Essentially, this shows how keen Backham was to join Madrid. He's not getting a pay rise & has to give more of his commercial income to Madrid. Unless Madris manage to uncover new commercial opps for Beckham he will be worse off.