Chapter 618: Big Brothers Gathering
Hugo stood up with satisfaction and shook hands with Platini, Del Nido and others. Del Nido is the chairman of Sevilla, and Sevilla is also a member of the European Club Association. After losing, he maintained a good demeanor and not only congratulated Hugo, but also emphasized Messi's performance.
"Thank you, Mr. Del Nido. A Super Cup game is not an important event. You also performed very well. It is not easy to beat you!" Hugo said politely while holding Del Nido's hand.
In the evening, Le Graet invited Platini, Hugo, Del Nido and others to have dinner together. This kind of dinner is mainly to keep in touch and enhance mutual friendship. Del Nido asked Hugo that your Serie A league has always had big money in the past, why is it different this summer.
"Because there is no money!" Hugo shrugged and said.
Yes, there is no money. Seeing that the transfer window of Serie A is about to close, the teams have no strong reinforcements. Trapani has made a net profit of more than 100 million euros in this summer's transfer window. It is very unusual that he has made a lot of money without spending much money.
So far, the biggest spending club in the Italian transfer market is the newly promoted giant Juventus. They have invested more than 60 million in total and bought many players. They are definitely ambitious for the new season. Not to mention competing for the championship, at least they want to qualify for the Champions League. The Champions League qualification means money, which is something that must be obtained for the heavy-burdened giants. Fortunately, Serie A has a high score in recent years and has four places.
For example, the two giants of Milan and Roma have not made big investments. With the economic recession, Inter Milan's chairman Moratti has also felt the hardship. Old Berlusconi is doing well. He still has money, but he has also tightened his money supply under the general situation.
As for the two Roma giants, Rosella is still struggling. He has no money to invest. This summer, he was forced to sell Chivu to Inter Milan. Not to mention the miser Lotito, he will not invest a lot.
Other small and medium-sized teams are trying their best to maintain their financial situation. The southern teams are particularly difficult because the living standards in the south are worse, the fans have no money, and pirated jerseys are everywhere. The southern teams can't make any money by relying on fans to survive. They can only make a fuss about player trading. Now the economy is in recession, but the ball market is getting hotter and hotter. The cost of team operations is rising. Many teams are unable to make ends meet. Some risk making false accounts and are forced to sell players.
Many team chairmen are actually secretly grateful to Hugo because Hugo paid a price that exceeded expectations to buy the broadcasting rights, and the broadcasting income of each team has increased a lot.
However, when De Laurentiis invited many teams to share the advertising revenue, because of poverty, no one remembered Hugo's kindness anymore. No matter how small the mosquito is, it is meat for them.
Speaking of the word poor, everyone at the dinner had some thoughts. Sevilla was also poor. They trained many excellent players, but they all went to Real Madrid or Barcelona in the end. In Spain, only these two teams had the crazy confidence to buy players.
"The current situation is terrible! But Mr. Colemani, I don't believe you have no money!" Del Nido shook his head and said.
"We Trapani are also poor, brother. After calculation, our salary expenditure this season has accounted for 70% of the team's income! Think about what the consequences will be if I don't sell people?!" Hugo smiled bitterly.
Le Graet, Del Nido and others were shocked. Trapani's ratio was too scary. This was a very scary ratio.
In general, a team should try to keep its salary expenditure at about 50% of its income. This is a relatively safe line.
As Hugo said, if they don't sell people, this ratio will be higher, the loss will be greater, and Hugo will spend more money every year. Even if Hugo is willing to spend, he can't spend like this. If he continues to spend like this, he will not be able to pass Platini's financial fairness test sooner or later, but will harm the team.
It is difficult for a team to change its appearance in one season. From the perspective of business, Trapani used high salaries to attract players to join in the early years. With Hugo's superstar policy, the team's salary became higher and higher, and the team's strength continued to increase. Last season, it finally won the treble. This is a long process. Now Trapani Club is actually somewhat aware of controlling salary expenditures, but it is impossible to directly reduce the salary target. If you choose to sell players in a radical way, the team's strength will inevitably be affected.
So it is a long process to preserve strength and control salaries. There is still time. If Platini's policy comes out and you rush to remedy it, it may have a great impact on the team's strength. The future of commercial development is full of uncertainty. Hugo cannot guarantee it, so it is not in vain to say that it harmed the team.
Trapani's selling of players this summer is affected by this reason.
Every team faces this problem. For example, Sevilla also hopes to achieve good results, but if the players perform well, a salary increase is always a given. The contract renewal signing fees and agent benefits are all a considerable burden. It is better to sell the players while the giants are interested. At worst, they can train them again. This is the helplessness of small and medium-sized teams.
Unless they are lucky enough to make it to the Champions League and get a large sum of money, which may relieve the great pressure and allow them to consider retaining their star players, it will be difficult. The conflict of honor and interest between the players and the club will make the two sides drift apart.
"However, I am not worried! I am confident that I can reduce the team's salary to a suitable level within three years! Haha, it's not that I don't want to buy players, but that I don't have a good goal! Our team has a very good foundation in all aspects, and not buying players does not mean that our strength will decline." Hugo said in a relaxed tone.
"Haha, it's easy to do things if you have money!" Del Nido concluded.
"Yes, I have money, but Platini, the old guy, will sooner or later use his fairness principle, which is not easy to deal with." Hugo laughed and scolded.
"Are you against him doing that?!" Le Graet said.
"No, no, no! That's a good idea! I'm sure it's a good idea, a real good idea! If I didn't support him, I wouldn't have called everyone to form this association!" Hugo shook his head.
Everyone laughed, and Del Nido said, "Mr. Colani, do you mean the association should listen to him?!"
"Of course not, the association listens to us! We should fight for anything that is good for us. Now it's different from the past! Our association now has so many members, we have to be responsible for the members, not for Mr. Platini!" Hugo said without any sense of disobedience.
Everyone was very satisfied with what they heard. Many people were not satisfied with the previous agreement. Everyone was afraid that the association would be Platini's dog if it was in power.
"By the way, his principle of fairness is very good, which is good for everyone. At least the pace of those big clubs buying players has been restrained, so you can keep players." Hugo did not regard himself as a big club.
"I hope so!" Del Nido sighed.
There is another possibility for the new policy, that is, it will make small clubs worse. It is difficult to make money by investing in football. Many bosses have various reasons for investing. The principle of fairness limits their investment. Small clubs may find it more difficult to sell their players, and then the economic situation may be worse.
Hugo is not stupid. He knows the potential dangers, but what does it have to do with him? ! Whether Platini is on stage or not is not of much concern to him. He is unlikely to promote the development of European football. It is good enough that he can benefit Italian football.
Even if he cannot keep up with the trend in Italy, Hugo feels that he has no way to do anything about it.