La Liga 09/10

[TaylorJ_01]

€550m?! That's disgusting.

[Guest neesy111]

Our new board revealed the results of the audit today. According to them we lost €77m last season, and we are €550m in debt. Apparently the main point of contention is that the Laporta board included some future revenue (TV, sponsorships, etc...) in the accounts of last year (and possibly the years before that).

 

Actually not as bad as I thought, as ludicrous as it may look. But hopefully Rosell will be more sane than Laporta.

 

you've been spending ridiculously on wages recently. messi on 180k a week, i'm sure he would stay at barca on 100k

[Village Idiot]

Apparently it's €450m, not €550m. €550m is the loans we have. I'm not a financials expert by any stretch, but that's what they are saying. There's more to it, it seems that Laporta's board used creative accounting to disguise the losses, since according to our law the boards of fan-owned clubs have to answer for the losses incurred during their time. With the revised accounts they can be forced to put up €45m (although it's going to be a long process if the club decides to pursue it).

 

Well, €450m is huge but is what it has been said for the last year or so that our real debt was, so I'm actually somewhat relieved that they haven't found a bigger hole. And given our revenue it's manageable if the new board behaves like they say they will. And imho all teams not named Manchester City will be going that way so I'm not that scared that it will hurt our sporting success.

 

We have done some crazy transfers too. Chygrynsky for €25m, Zlatan for €45m+Eto'o, Hleb/Keirrison/Henrique/Cáceres for around €10-15m apiece... Our wage bill % is around 60-65% of our total revenue IIRC which isn't that bad (although more detailed accounts will be released in the Fall). That includes the wages of all the other professional sections (basketball, handball, futsal, roller hockey, athletics) which all lose money and always have.

[Village Idiot]

Today ends the deadline Deportivo had to pay off their debt with former player Sergio. If they don't they will be relegated according to La Liga's regulations. They are expected to pay since the sale of Filipe Luís was done to get enough funds, but they haven't yet agreed with Sergio the form and timeline of the payments (€4,2m).

[TaylorJ_01]

How did they manage to be in 4.2mil debt to a former player? Nuts.

[Village Idiot]

How did they manage to be in 4.2mil debt to a former player? Nuts.

 

They rescinded his contract and have to pay him in full after failing to reach to an agreement.

[Guest deporik]

How did they manage to be in 4.2mil debt to a former player? Nuts.

 

They rescinded his contract and have to pay him in full after failing to reach to an agreement.

 

He was out of contract, it wasn't rescinded.

 

He had a clause in his contract which automatically renewed him for 2009/2010 if he played so many games, which he did. His contract was renegotiated and he took a drop in wages but wanted a 1.5 million payout as some kind of penalisation payout in the earlier contract. He was also owed about 500k in wages and the rest is supposed to be image rights, which Depor always seem to be slow at paying.

The automatic renewal finished earlier this year and he signed with Levante but Depor have acknowledged the debt.

 

The biggest stumbling block seems to be the length of time in paying the debt. Depor want to pay the debt over a 3 year period but Sergio wants the money sooner.

[Village Idiot]

How did they manage to be in 4.2mil debt to a former player? Nuts.

 

They rescinded his contract and have to pay him in full after failing to reach to an agreement.

 

He was out of contract, it wasn't rescinded.

 

He had a clause in his contract which automatically renewed him for 2009/2010 if he played so many games, which he did. His contract was renegotiated and he took a drop in wages but wanted a 1.5 million payout as some kind of penalisation payout in the earlier contract. He was also owed about 500k in wages and the rest is supposed to be image rights, which Depor always seem to be slow at paying.

The automatic renewal finished earlier this year and he signed with Levante but Depor have acknowledged the debt.

 

The biggest stumbling block seems to be the length of time in paying the debt. Depor want to pay the debt over a 3 year period but Sergio wants the money sooner.

 

Sergio had to sue them before they acknowledged it, though. But Spanish courts usually side with players.

 

It's been said that apart from arguing the length of the installments, Sergio wants the debt to be guaranteed by a third party (a bank, something usual in Spanish business code), and Lendoiro just wants the player to "take his word for it". Deportivo are pretty f***ed financially so I can see why Sergio would ask that, if they enter administration he would be screwed otherwise.

 

The deadline just passed and still no word on the debt being fulfilled. It wouldn't surprise me at all that Lendoiro will call La Liga's bluff (last time they tried to relegate a first division team on financial grounds they farcically balked).

[Guest deporik]

News came through a little while ago that the threat of relegation is over. Depor deposited the money they owed in wages and the other contractual debt.

 

However, nothing is ever that simple with Depor and the money owed in image rights has still got to be agreed exactly, so nothing has been paid from that. Apparently though, that doesn't affect Depor's relegation chances.

[Village Idiot]

News came through a little while ago that the threat of relegation is over. Depor deposited the money they owed in wages and the other contractual debt.

 

However, nothing is ever that simple with Depor and the money owed in image rights has still got to be agreed exactly, so nothing has been paid from that. Apparently though, that doesn't affect Depor's relegation chances.

 

Ok, I had heard in the radio that they hadn't. Bad sources I guess. Yeah they are safe with the image rights since they aren't considered part of a players' wages by La Liga (they are a loophole commonly used to avoid tax and other regulations) and can't be relegated on those grounds.

[Guest deporik]

Do you know what the image rights actually consist of? I'm always gobsmacked to see how much is owed in image rights and it's not like everyone in Galicia has a Sergio shirt.

[Village Idiot]

As said they are loophole. Nominally is what clubs pay to players in order to sell merchandise and use the player's name and likeness in publicity and promotional materials. However it's subject to a better fiscality than regular wages (as it's not a salary but a sale), and lots of clubs use it as a device to pay a part of the wages to players. There was a time when more than half of the salary of a player would be paid as image rights, but they have curbed it down after the taxman started going after it, but it's still used.