I came a cross a interesting article about Serie A Milan and Financial Fair Play
by Brigate Rossonere
Serie A and FFP
I will tell you know, we are in big trouble. Galliani does not joke when he is saying that Serie A can potentially fall behind Ligue 1.
What does Serie A currently have? Global viewership? Not to the extent that EPL / La Liga do. Huge commercial sales? Inter and Milan make about 20% of what Bayern do. This is not all, in fact, those are the smaller problems. The biggest issue for Italian clubs is matchday revenue. We are losing out not only because of old and outdated stadiums that no-body wants to visit, we are losing out because Italy is in a tough financial situation and even with these low tickets prices that Italian giants are currently charging, there is still a falling number of total spectators each year.
A lot of arguments for Serie A still being the third strongest league is that the giants in Serie A are much stronger than the German giants (Bayern, Borussia, Schalke etc) and most definitely stronger than the French giants (Marseille, Lyon etc). Well, once FFP kicks in, the top Serie A sides, especially the two Milan clubs whose owners are constantly covering losses and contributing capital, will suffer most and will be hurt to such an extent that we will no longer be a feared force in Europe.
This is nowhere more apparent than with Inter's current state. They have a team of champions, a team that is basically unchanged since they won the UCL and Moratti was happy with this. The problem with this team is that they are all in the latter stages of their careers and are all swallowing huge wages. Moratti seems to have just realized that their value is quickly depreciating and if he wishes for Inter to break even, they need to get rid of the biggest earners and sell at least one or two of their top assets to recuperate losses. Who have Inter brought in to replace their departing heroes? Ricardo Alvarez? Sneijder's boots are too big for him to fill. Transfer targets? Palacio is not on the same level as Eto'o.
Milan will soon have a similar issue. Nesta, Oddo, Zambrotta, Ambrosini, Seedorf, Gattuso and Pippo are all players who will need to be replaced in the near future (this or next year). If Milan wish to participate in European competition, they will only be allowed a leeway of 45m euro loss each year for three years from when FFP starts in 2014 and even less from then on.
MILAN LOST 70+M EURO'S LAST YEAR.
Who did we purchase? Sure we spent 16m on Robinho, but Ibra only cost us 6m in that year and Boateng was only paid for this year. How can we replace the seven players leaving / retiring in the next two years without going to Berlusconi for yet another capital injection?
The answer is through the two things that FFP does not include, stadium and youth academy development. I know I sound like a broken record, but the only thing that Milan can do to solve their issues is to either buy-out the San Siro (which is costing us 13m euro's a year just to rent) or build a new stadium. It would attract more viewers and eliminate the council fee for renting the San Siro. A loan could easily be taken out to finance the stadium and instead of using 13m annually to rent a stadium, we could be using it to pay off a loan so that in the future Milan own their own stadium and become more self sufficient.
Inter and Roma should both follow a similar path.
Juventus have prepared themselves already for FFP. Their owners have built them a brand new stadium, one with no running track, stands that are as close to the pitch as the FIGC allow and many corporate boxes, all of which have already been sold for the season ahead. Their owners have also injected 100m + in capital to improve their squad before the start of FFP so that they can be compeitive both on and off the field. They are doing everything right at the moment and should be lauded for this.
The FIGC and Italian government needs to realize the issues with the sport that brings in much revenue to their country and must change the laws so that stadium privatization is easier for sport clubs to achieve otherwise their fear of owning outdated stadiums with no revenue streams will come to fruition anyway as their country will be home to a non-relevant European league.
Doing nothing will kill Italian football.
We (Milan) are in big trouble this coming year's unless B&G do something drastic about team management and financial. i hate saying this but we should be following Juve's path ( not the match fixing part LOL ) to buy san siro or built a new stadium. In might be financially crippling now but in the long - term path we should be seeing us buying big name players if not attracting them to come to play in serie A. Berlusconi as the prime minister should had done something to change laws or reform some of the useless FIGC policies. IMO
