He became the annual savior of the main Madrid team. Immediately after the end of the winter transfer window flashed in the headlines. He made the seriously worried members of the board of directors of Real Madrid gain vigorous smiles and convinced them that in the end, everything was fine and even healthy. A year ago, he made himself known just at the time when the then president of Real Madrid was ready to resign. Last Tuesday, this gallant knight appeared immediately after the performance of the stands of the Santiago Bernabeu, which signaled with white handkerchiefs about the next home defeat.
The name of this savior is Deloitte. Deloitte publishes the football industry standings. A sort of financial league. For the second year in a row, Madrid Real Madrid has won the championship. The Royal Club is well ahead of Manchester United, the repeated champion of the financial football league in the early 21st century. Now the Mankunians are only in fourth position. Deloitte points out that the Club of Madrid works best with fans. A huge number of fans around the world are happy to part with their own money, just to get something from the various attributes of the "creamy". At the same time, Real Madrid has not been able to win at least one trophy for a season. Too many home defeats from teams such as Levante lead to the appearance of white handkerchiefs in the stands - a symbol of discontent among fans. Some "Recreativo", for example, may bury the hopes of "Real" in the first four and take its place in the Champions League.
According to Deloitte, Real Madrid earns £ 22 million more than Barcelona. This difference will be reduced if Real Madrid does not take part in the games of the prestigious club football tournament. In addition, the Catalans could receive another 14 million pounds if in the season-07/08 they sold an advertising space on their T-shirts, which is currently given to the charitable organization UNICEF. The impression that revenues multiply regardless of the club’s achievements is misleading. Deloitte publishes the data that teams provide. But in his tables there is no the most expensive article of the financial balance - players.
The caliber of football that Real had at the beginning of the century brought Madrid a major marketing success. The idea of the leadership was that the stars would soon pay back the club’s costs for their expensive transfers and huge salaries. By purchasing a star, Real Madrid had the right to expect that fans would buy incredible amounts of T-shirts and subscribe to broadcast matches of the team, and sponsors would be happy to attract such players as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham. And it all really worked. But in the past six months, the listed players have said they are leaving Real Madrid. At the same time, only for Ronaldo, who transferred to Milan, a worthy sum of compensation of 5 million pounds was received.
For the five leading clubs of the financial football league, earning on the sale of players is not a priority. None of them wants to be a “supplier of players” in the original sense of this expression. The main task is to attract and retain players in the team during their heyday. It is necessary to help the player to open as much as possible at the time of being in the team. When Real seriously decided to become the richest club in the world, its enterprising and boastful president Florentino Perez emphasized that not only star purchases, but also other transfer operations should bring benefits and income. In this case, Perez immediately achieved great success. He set a world transfer record by buying Luis Figo from Barcelona for £ 38.7 million, but almost recouped that expense by selling 30-year-old Fernando Redondo to Milan and getting rid of striker Nicolas Anelka, who was for capitalize problem guides.
With Figo, Real Madrid won the championship, and Perez seemed to prove his talent for running a football club. Three years later, this talent seemed to evaporate. The Deloitte does not indicate trophies won by Real Madrid after 2003 - they simply did not exist. Also, they do not write about leapfrog players, coaches and senior staff. Or about the balance of transfer operations. “Real” was able to earn on Michael Owen, who came from Liverpool in the last year of the contract with the British, and was sold by Madrid twice a year later. But for every Owen there is his own Antonio Cassano. Perez got it at a low price, because for Roma it was a real disaster, and Real could soon sell Cassano at a high price. But no matter how. Now Cassano is training separately from the team due to the fact that he entered into a skirmish with coach Fabio Capello. Cassano receives a large salary, but is only an outside observer of the process. But he is only 24, and great prospects threaten to become the property of the past.
But it's not just about the bad guys, but also about the bad sales. In 2003, Claude Makelele left the club. However, Real Madrid received not only an impressive amount of compensation from Chelsea for the Frenchman’s transition, but also a hole in the center of midfield. Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to name a football player who would have grown in price (or began to play better) in Real Madrid, and not in another period (before or after his stay in Madrid) of his career. After parting with Makelele, Real Madrid sold Esteban Cambiasso to Inter, where he became one of the best midfielders of Serie A. Samuel Eto'o, who played only once in 6 years in the championship match, trained at 15 years old in Real Madrid. Last week, Real Madrid sought the final sale of Jonathan Woodgate at Middlesbrough, where he is on loan and feels just fine. In Madrid, he was tormented by injuries. Borough will pay less than half the amount that Real spent on buying Woodgate from Newcastle. The cost of a football player who played 12 matches in Spain in two years will ultimately exceed 8 million pounds. The economic sentence to the leader of the financial league is harsh: Real Madrid is a club where no one progresses.
Translation by Eugene KLEPOV