From coaching Real Madrid

Chapter 820 The Great Era of Capital

Although the outside world has mixed praise and praise, all European club operators must admit that the [UEFA Financial Fair Play Act] promulgated by UEFA in 2010 has completely changed European football.

Many people's impression of this bill is balance of payments and late fees, but in fact it provides more detailed provisions.

For example, in terms of balance of payments, UEFA has very clearly stipulated that starting from 2014, each team's salary expenses will be reviewed and shall not exceed 70% of the club's income.

This clause is very important.

In August of this year, Spanish [economists] conducted a survey of 20 La Liga teams. The only La Liga team that could achieve this ratio was Real Madrid.

At that time, a total of 200 players in La Liga and La Liga were owed wages of up to 52 million euros, and a strike was launched, which forced La Liga to be postponed.

This media also calculated the finances of the 20 La Liga clubs in the 2009/10 season. The total revenue was 1.61 billion euros, but the total expenditure was as high as 1.823 billion, which means that the losses reached more than 200 million euros.

This is La Liga's fourth consecutive season of losses.

And here, except for Real Madrid, which can control salary to 70% of income, even Barcelona cannot do it.

According to data from accounting firm Deloitte, in the 2009/10 season, Barcelona’s revenue was 415 million euros, making it the second European club after Real Madrid to reach the 400 million mark, but its pre-tax salary and bonus expenses exceeded 300 million euros. , the proportion reached 77%.

In other words, Barcelona has exceeded UEFA's warning line.

[Economist] said that two years later, despite Barcelona's efforts to increase revenue and reduce expenditures. After Russell took office, he made drastic cuts in administrative, La Masia and first-team areas, but still suffered losses. The contract renewals of many core players such as Messi, Iniesta and Xavi have caused Barcelona's salary ratio to increase rather than decrease.

This is actually a very difficult problem.

If you keep the players, the salary pressure will definitely be greater after the contract is renewed. But if you sell the players, the team's competitiveness will be affected, and how to deal with it is a problem.

In this regard, Real Madrid can be called a model student. Florentino has done a good job in controlling salary and always keeps the team within a reasonable range.

Gao Shen told Su Qing and Lucas that they must learn from Real Madrid in terms of finance.

Once it exceeds the warning line, sell it!

Of course, Leeds United's situation is not that bad yet.

The proportion that Su Qing said is too large is mostly due to the exclusion of transfer income.

If the team's transfer income is added in, Leeds United's ratio is actually quite good.

But in European football, few people will refer to player sales when evaluating a club's financial health, because everyone knows that it is a one-time transaction.

Previously, when Gao Shen was in the City of London, he heard many interesting things from bankers that "trapped" foreign owners. For example, some teams would sell players for several years in a row in order to show off their good financial status. Then use methods such as loaning or free transfer of veterans to make up for the team's competitiveness.

As a result, the team's performance is good and there is no danger of relegation, but its financial situation is astonishingly good, just like an old hen laying golden eggs, which makes the investors' eyes light up.

If you think about it, if it is profitable and has good performance, then it is simply a high-quality asset.

What the hell, who said you can’t make money in professional football?

As soon as I bought it, I fell into a trap!

The loaned players have returned, and the veteran players are not as good as each other year after year. If you want to avoid relegation, fine, just spend money!

Over the years, I don’t know how many investors have been “scammed” by this set of tactics.

But among people who really understand football, who would watch you transfer and sell people?

Even a team like Ajax has no way to guarantee that it can sell people like this every year.

Because this is unrealistic.

In the industry, there is actually another indicator that can be looked at, which is the proportion of game-related income in the club's total income.

This is a bit like the income ratio between Ronaldo and Messi.

For superstars at their level, salary income actually only accounts for a very small part of their total income, some may even be less than 30%. The real majority of their income comes from commercial sponsorships.

In the same way, the bigger and more wealthy a club is, the proportion of game-related income will be relatively low. In other words, among the so-called troika, match day income will account for the lowest proportion, while broadcast rights and commercial operations will account for a higher proportion.

But in lower-level leagues, especially leagues like the English Championship, forget it. Most of them are game-related income.

Of course, in the big era of capital games, never underestimate those smart players.

Because the Premier League has a so-called parachute protection policy, it is easy for some lifts to appear.

Take advantage of the huge income gap and operating cost gap between the English Championship and the Premier League to obtain huge benefits.

For example, in the English Championship, if you want to play in the Premier League, as long as you run it well, the cost will be about 30 to 40 million pounds.

This is an approximate value, including player, coach salary, etc.

As long as it is managed properly, salary can generally reflect the level and competitiveness of a team.

But in the Premier League, it is more than 100 million pounds per year.

After being promoted to the Premier League, many teams do not buy people or spend money, and just go out for one season. After being relegated, they can rely on the parachute protection policy to survive in the English Championship.

And the net profit is about 100 million pounds.

If this team is relatively young and is relegated back to the Championship after a year of training in the Premier League, it will still be a great success. Even if a young player in the team is spotted by a Premier League team and sold,

That's another ten to twenty million pounds.

The existence of the parachute protection policy ensures that even if these Premier League teams fall back to the English Championship, with the parachute funds of 20 million pounds, they can do better than other English Championship teams and have more opportunities.

Return to the Premier League.

So, to a certain extent, it’s not that you can’t make money by running a club, but it depends on how you want to make money.

For Gao Shen and Leeds United, the worst thing is to work as a lifter, earning him a few small goals every year. After reaching a certain level, if someone is willing to take over, they can take the opportunity to sell it and get a large sum of money back.

But this is obviously not a profound pursuit.

If Gao Shen really wanted to make money, he wouldn't operate like he does now.

For example, he will not invest so much money to transform the club and attract all kinds of talents, so that the salary of Leeds United employees is even higher than the salary of the players.

The reason why he did this was because he wanted to lay a foundation!

After taking over Leeds United, Gao Shen has been making plans.

From the training base to the big data center to the methodology department to the scouting system, all of these are in the long-term layout.

If it is really to make money, then Gao Shen does not need to do this. He should use his connections to rent players from major teams, and after getting Leeds United into the Premier League, he can hang out in the City of London to look for buyers. Cash out at a high level.

With his personal connections, is it difficult to do this?

…

"By the way, how is the progress of our documentary?" Gao Shen asked with concern.

He still attaches great importance to this documentary.

When Leeds United began to ask for a documentary, Gao Shen and Lucas quickly contacted their friends at British TV Channel 4. The content of this TV station has always been known for its experimental, revolutionary and innovative content. Trend is currently focusing on the Internet and mobile phone fields.

When Gao Shen and Lucas proposed the idea, Channel 4 immediately seized the opportunity and immediately cooperated with Leeds United. Both parties invested half of the money to shoot a documentary based on Leeds United's attack on the Premier League. It also specially invited international Emmy Award for Best Documentary Director Louis Osmond.

This female director works closely with Channel 4, but she is very low-key, and many people don’t even know her. However, in the field of documentaries, her ability is unquestionable, and her works are very story-telling and are all about man.

As a woman, she can always use her unique perspective and delicacy to deconstruct men and the world behind him.

For example, she won the International Emmy Award for "The Call of Silence", adapted from the best-selling book of the same name, following climber Joe Simpson to challenge the north slope of the Eiger, which has claimed the lives of more than 60 people.

Gao Shen and Su Qing specially watched this documentary and were deeply impressed. They talked to Louise Osmond again and found that she was also very interested in this filming plan because nothing is more exciting than football. The story of a surging man.

The entire Leeds United team was also very supportive of Osmond's filming. Her team even entered the pre-match and midfield dressing rooms of Leeds United's game against Manchester United, which shows how much Leeds United supports her.

The first episode of the entire documentary begins with the derby match between Leeds United and Manchester United.

This game is a natural plot, very dramatic and very contagious, especially for Leeds in those days.

In those days, Osmond led her team through the streets of Leeds, penetrated into the crowds of fans from all walks of life, and captured many very interesting scenes.

According to her, she not only wants to record this game, but also wants to introduce to everyone the football culture of Leeds United and why this group of fans still follow the bankrupt club indifferently after so many years. team.

Ultimately, she hopes to illustrate the inextricable connection between football and community in the UK.

After all, he is a director who has won an International Emmy Award. His ambition is really extraordinary.

And this documentary has already been named, it’s called [Elland Road].

"After playing Manchester United, they have been busy filming recently, saying that they want to tell the story of this journey to the Premier League, as well as the history and history of Leeds United from various perspectives such as fans, players, and club operators. Football culture, a lot of material was taken.”

Lucas was also very excited when he mentioned this.

At first, it was an idea proposed by Gao Shen, but after it was advanced, especially after documentaries like Osmond were invited to shoot, the situation became completely different.

The investment was within the club's budget, and it was in cooperation with Channel 4, but the overall level was completely different.

"I contacted Channel 4 and they decided to broadcast the first episode [Rose Derby] on Boxing Day after Christmas. We will also synchronize it on online platforms, including in China."

Gao Shen nodded, he was full of expectations for this.