Valencia
MILAN AND BARCELONA OPEN THE TRANSFER FLOODGATES
With Ronaldinho’s move to AC Milan all but confirmed, it seems that the barrier to a number of summer moves has been released. Barcelona held the key to three transfers and within twenty-four hours, there has been confirmation that the end-game in two of them approaches. Firstly, AC Milan agreed to pay Barcelona £19m for Ronaldinho’s services and subject to a medical, that transfer should be confirmed today.
The funds received will allow Alexander Hleb to leave Arsenal to join the Catalan giants for a fee approaching £15m. The Byelorussian international arrived in the Catalan capital where according to the club’s website, he will undergo a series of medicals at a local hospital and the club’s medical centre. Should these be passed, he will be confirmed as a Barcelona player tomorrow afternoon.
The final key in the jigsaw will be the transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor, again from Arsenal. This is more problematic for Barcelona as funds to purchase the player are believed to dependent upon the sale of Samuel Eto’o. Reports in the Spanish media today suggest that Valencia are considering a €25m bid for the Cameroonian international. Eto’o himself has made it clear he will only leave Barcelona if it suits him but his age will count against him next summer when more youthful rivals will be coveted by the big European clubs. Eto’o is also prepared to play in this summer’s Olympics, a move that will not sit comfortably with new employers, especially with the high value of his fee.
The transfer floodgates are suddenly coming ajar; the end of this week may yet see them open fully.
LA LIGA MAY BE BLACKED OUT BY PLAYERS STRIKE
In marked contrast to the sums of money being spent by the big two of the Primera Division, is the case last year of UD Levante, the bottom team, relegated and essentially bankrupt. They did not pay the players regularly or at all, for large parts of the season and look certain to slide through the Segundo Division into the third level of Spanish football unless changes take place at the club very quickly. The lessons of their demise are not being learned though and is the root of a clash between the league and players union.
AS reports that the union want the league to change the insolvency rules to ensure that players salaries are paid before anyone else in these situations. They are right to be nervous; Spanish top flight clubs have a recent history of financial mismanagement with even the champions, Real Madrid, teetering on the edge of this abyss at the start of the century, saved only by the sale of land for dubious values.
If the two sides cannot reach an agreement before the start of the season, the union has the mandate to call for strike action with echoes of the PFA dispute over Broadcasting revenues in England. Then the players voted overwhelmingly to strike if the argument was not resolved which led to the clubs backing down from reducing the moneys paid to the PFA. The Spanish dispute is more crucial than even that; this is the players wages and not all earn the multi-million euro salaries of the elite, a higher proportion need to pay their bills every month.
With the inflated transfer fees paid for players in the Champions League sides, it is hard to see any justification on moral grounds that the clubs have to not accede to the request of the players union. In football though, morals and commonsense are two qualities in short supply.
Villa To Stay At Valencia For Now
David Villa has dashed the dreams of supporters of Europe’s biggest clubs by stating his desire to remain at the Mestalla for the coming season. Having finished Euro2008 as top scorer, Villa has been heavily linked with a move away with the Premier League, Barcelona or Real Madrid favoured destinations in those reports.
However, in response to chants from supporters yesterday, Villa spoke at Valencia City Hall where the Spanish squad were celebrating their triumph, the striker said,
I am very grateful and I am very happy here. I hope to stay here. The president should be thanked for wanting to keep the best players and to make a great team
Had Villa left, it would have created a huge problem for Los Ches, still reeling from an indifferent 2007-08 campaign that saw them only pull clear of the relegation spots in the final weeks of the season. Villa maintained his excellent scoring record, a key reason for their survival.
Despite his proclamations, there is still no certainty that he will line-up at Valencia next season. The money that the club could raise from his sale would enable the squad to be strenghtened. That according to President, Agustin Morera, is not the key matter, keeping Villa is,
We had offers last year, we have had more this year and we continue to receive them. Our plan is to keep him and we will try and do this
For how much longer though remains to be seen. Having had his appetite for glory whetted with the national team, his desire for success at club level may yet overrride any sense of loyalty.
PLATINI WANTS CLUB DEBT OUTLAWED
Michel Platini has set himself on course to become football’s Robin Hood, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Days after his plan to adjust the Champions League revenue share to clubs, he is now seriously tackling the issue of the debt levels that plague the larger clubs across the continent.
Regular financial reviews from Deloitte & Touche and their ilk show that the challengers for the premier trophy in European club football are heavily in debt. The problem for Platini is how to deal with such an issue. The framework for any changes already exists with the UEFA Club Licencing process; the Frenchman wants to take it further and curb the excesses of the former G14.
The European Club Association (ECA) was formed as an umbrella organisation within UEFA’s ranks to compensate for the disbandment of the G14; Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has been appointed President, subject to confirmation at the ECA’s meeting in ten days time. An illustrious playing career was followed by a successful spell in the commercial confines of Bayern Munchen, giving the German some kudos within both circles, indicating that the thought processes of the Governing Body and the clubs are in tandem in some respects at least.
Problematically, that harmonious state is set to diverge once the details are scrutinised. Rummeneige believes that the financial stabilitly of the games top clubs is crucial to football’s long-term survival; the clubs have yet to show, en masse, the same sensibilities. Rummenigge and Platini want to curb the excesses shown in expenditure, particularly wages. The financial rewards for players have long been a root cause for the financial turmoil which exists at club level. Proposals that require this spend to be curbed, pegging the salaries to 55% of turnover has been mooted, representing an immediately large obstacle which Platini and Rummeneige will struggle to overcome.
In setting financial restrictions, the duo have to come forward with achievable solutions otherwise they risk alienating the supporters. The simplest option for the clubs to bring revenues and wages into line is to increase matchday ticket prices sharply. For some clubs, the practicalities of doing so are relatively straightforward, limited capacities at the stadia means that waiting lists for tickets become shorter as less affluent supporters drop out. However, there is a downside to this in that those supporters become lost to the game. Broadcasters have reached saturation point in some countries and the matches which have the ratings that advertisers care about are increasingly becoming more polarised toward the top clubs domestically. And what of their offspring? If parents are out of the habit of attending, the example which they set to the next generation is lost and so forth.
Collective Bargaining has long been the preferred method for Broadcast Rights but an era of stringent financial guardianship is likely to see an end to that. The bigger clubs recognise that they would be significantly better rewarded through individual negotiations but the wealth gap which already exists would only become wider under those circumstances. UEFA would need to put in place some financial support for the losers in this situation, something that they have been strongly opposed to doing in the past.
Another crucial area to be addressed is the level of borrowing in evidence at clubs. The English Premier League is regularly held as an example where the excesses of this are most evident. That might be the case now but it was not so long ago that Real Madrid were winning the Champions League, saved from insolvency by the fortuitous sale of land to the city council. The current trend is different, foreign investors funding the purchase of clubs via borrowing which is loaded onto the clubs Balance Sheet or to parent companies, the repayments for which are removed from the club via Management Fees.
An inherently risky strategy, there is nothing wrong with this methodology provided it is managed prudently. However, too many clubs are barely profitable without such charges leading to an accumulation of future financial issues, clubs excessively dependent on future revenues to survive.
Separating the issue of third party borrowing from loans by owners is a thornier issue. Roman Abramovich has funded Chelsea via such loans yet can UEFA treat them as equals to the debts incurred at Manchester United and Liverpool for example, arising from the purchase of the clubs? What of the mortgage that Arsenal have on The Emirates Stadium? Is that of equal standing to any of the three previous examples. Wherever the line is drawn, the losers will bemoan their misfortune. It will take all of Platini and Rummenigge’s political acumen to find a solution that is beneficial to the game as a whole.
SPURS JOIN THE QUEUE TO BUY A VILLA IN THE SUN
Tottenham’s offer of £20m for David Villa seems more tongue-in-cheek than based in any serious reality. The player is being heavily linked with all of Europe’s major clubs and now some minor ones too and the Spanish club admit that offers have been received for the player but they have not given up on him staying.
The player has often been quoted as wanting to move to Real Madrid or Barcelona but has also drawn attention from at least two of the Premier League’s top two. A move to the Catalan giants seems to be the more stretched imagination of journalists with Joan Laporta closing the net on Emmanuel Adebayor although the chances of that succeeding are diminishing by the day. It seems that they have realised that Arsenal will not be negotiating a fee below €30m (£24m), a valuation that the azulgrana had previously baulked at paying.
Villa meanwhile has been subject to more interest that the media is aware of. Juan Sanchez, Les Ches technical secretary, spoke with Spanish daily AS,
A number of teams have come in with offers, more than are being spoken about, but both (coach Unai) Emery and I think that he’s going to stay
Were El Guaje to leave the Mestalla, it would be a big hole for them to fill. Scoring twenty one goals in thirty-five appearances in all competitions is a record comparable to any of Europe’s leading strikers. Considered in the context of Valencia’s dismal season in 2007-08, it becomes all the more remarkable.
