is Perez killing professional football

dsmythy

I wonder if he will bother with defenders.

CorkMan

Think they could bid for someone like John Terry?

ccosgrave

CiaranC wrote: »

Who do you support?

Guess.

There's a big difference between shelling out big money for players that your team NEEDS, but it's something completely different to shell out a fortune for players that you already have five or six of in your team already.

Mr. Presentable

stovelid wrote: »

In other Breaking News, Michel Platini had this to say today:

DEAFENING SILENCE

I realise it wasn't on the English news, because it doesn't suit their xenophobic agenda. But you're above that, right? So here's his remarks re Real Madrid and their policy

http://www.calciomercato.com//index.php?c=&a=127334

stovelid

nipplenuts wrote: »

I realise it wasn't on the English news, because it doesn't suit their xenophobic agenda. But you're above that, right? So here's his remarks re Real Madrid and their policy

http://www.calciomercato.com//index.php?c=&a=127334

It's all in foreign innit?

ArmaniJeanss

http://www.4thegame.com/club/manchester-united-fc/news/238711/platini_slams_excessive_ron_deal.html


UEFA president Michel Platini has criticised Real Madrid for their "excessive" deal for Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Spanish giants have broken the world transfer record twice this week by signing Kaka and now Ronaldo and Platini believes the deals are a threat to football's fairness.

MICHEL PLATINI Platini said: "These excessive transfers are happening almost every day.

"These transfers are a serious challenge to the idea of fair play and the concept of financial balance in our competitions.

"That is our top priority today."

*****

That make the frankly irrational anti-Platini mob any happier?

Snake Plisken

The King doesn't bankroll Real, thats just a Catalan rumour. I'm delighted they are bringing back the Galacticos, as long as they don't buy any English players Like Gerrard I'll be happy. Hopefully they will mount a good challange for both La Liga and the Champions League this year!

kinaldo

A couple of good points that I've stolen from Sid Lowe's Guardian blog that people should consider when criticising Madrid and Perez...

That the government bought their training ground is a long lived myth. The training ground was actually bought by private companies, what the government did was re-regulate the area the training grounds was on, so commercial building was possible.

Today four skyscrapers occupy parts of the old Real Madrid training ground.

think Perez basically has the right idea. Usually the teams with the best players win competitions. Madrid have been filling their ranks with also-rans over the past four years. The signing of Kaka and Ronaldo and probably VIlla marks a return to signing only the very best
The Galacticos project worked brilliantly up to when Perez signed Beckham. They sacked Del Bosque at the end of the previous season after winning the league and narrowly lost to Juventus in the semis of the Champs league, sold Makelele and brought in Quieroz who has been a disaster everywhere he's been as a manager. Madrid have done brilliantly to sign Kaka and Ronaldo because they are both brilliant players and will make a dramatic impact on Madrid's fortunes in the same way that Figo and ZIdane did. Beckham wasn't good enough to play for Madrid at the time he signed and dramatically compromised them.

anonymous_joe

ccosgrave wrote: »

Without going into much detail, I will say that Perez' philosophy does, ironically, cheapen the game. There just seems to be less prestige about it these days.

But maybe I'm just being nostalgiac, like every football fan in the world who doesn't support Madrid.

Ironically enough though, that's only because we're basically English in terms of football. Irish football has the same values as English (tough, hardworking, honest, etc).

Watching a sneaky foreign team spending lots of money on glamourous but morally questionable greasy foreigners is not cheapening the game at all. The world's most glamourous player has just been given permission to go to the world's shiniest most exciting club for a world record fee.

There's been an awful lot of shíte written this year about how the Premiership is the world's greatest league and so on, and this is a kick in the teeth to its cheerleaders. Which is all a silly attitude, but one that's detectable in a lot of the media comments.

The other reason that some might say Perez is not cheapening football is this: superstars aren't always a success. United improved when they lost Ruud van Nistelrooy. Diego Maradona won Napoli league titles, but was a disaster for Barcelona. A good squad of talented and dedicated players is more valuable than one or two superstars, because, at the end of the day it is a team game. Real Madrid still have a relatively weak defence, and if United go out and sign two quality wingers, a defensive midfielder and a goalkeeper, they'll probably be a stronger team than they were this season. Given that we won the Premiership and got to a Champions League final, that's hardly the sign of a sport, a league or a team in trouble.

SectionF

Snake Plisken wrote: »

I'm delighted they are bringing back the Galacticos, as long as they don't buy any English players Like Gerrard I'll be happy.

God forbid. Hands off our English players!

Incidentally... some sense of just how out of whack all this is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fQimBDhTII

Eirebear

SectionF wrote: »

God forbid. Hands off our English players!

Incidentally... some sense of just how out of whack all this is:

That little clip kind of contradicts itself by highlighting the fact that you could buy 1.5 million Real Madrid Away Shirts.

By the end of the coming season, Real Madrid will have raked back most of that 80 million through Ronaldo's image alone.

zesman

The Galacticos imploded before, they'll implode again, but not alas before they've won a few Champions Leagues.

thebaz

Snake Plisken wrote: »

The King doesn't bankroll Real, thats just a Catalan rumour. I'm delighted they are bringing back the Galacticos, as long as they don't buy any English players Like Gerrard I'll be happy. Hopefully they will mount a good challange for both La Liga and the Champions League this year!

Well who's bankrolling the money no object in these times ?

80 mill for one player, say he injures himself , football or lifestyle - or does a Thomas Brolin

Mr. Presentable

anonymous_joe wrote: »

A good squad of talented and dedicated players is more valuable than one or two superstars, because, at the end of the day it is a team game.

Good Point. It is why Italy are World Champions without any superstars, yet England, Nederlands, Portugal etc with their great individuals are not.

SectionF

Eirebear wrote: »

That little clip kind of contradicts itself by highlighting the fact that you could buy 1.5 million Real Madrid Away Shirts.

By the end of the coming season, Real Madrid will have raked back most of that 80 million through Ronaldo's image alone.

It highlights the fact that there's one born every minute. If you factor in the Asian market, there's probably one born every 10 seconds.

Snake Plisken

thebaz wrote: »

Well who's bankrolling the money no object in these times ?

80 mill for one player, say he injures himself , football or lifestyle - or does a Thomas Brolin

Ah the rumours created by the downtrodden Catalans :rolleyes:

Here is where they raise their funds :- taken from the bbc website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8094864.stm

From Puskas and Di Stefano to Zidane and Beckham, Spanish football giant Real Madrid have aspired to acquire some of the most talented and glamorous names in world football.

Now, in the latest chapter they have swooped in a matter of days for two of the biggest names in world football, Kaka and Ronaldo.

The signing strategy is being led by the returning president of the club, construction magnate Florentino Perez, who previously led the Spanish team from 2000 to 2006 - during its famous "galacticos" era.

It was under Mr Perez's first reign that the club initially aimed at becoming the world's richest and best known football brand.


REAL MADRID REVENUES 2007/08
Increased by 4% to £290m
Driven by increased commercial revenues
Commercial revenues accounted for 35% of income
Broadcasting income accounted for 37%
Matchday accounted for 28%
Source: Deloitte
But how can they afford to pay the reported £56m for Kaka and offer a world-record £80m for Cristiano Ronaldo - existing as they do without the deep pockets of a billionaire benefactor?

Growing match-day revenues, increasingly shrewd and global marketing, healthy commercial income, and a ground-breaking domestic TV deal, have all catapulted the club to the peak of the Deloitte's Football Money League this year.

They have topped it for the past four straight years, despite being overshadowed in the Champions League by their bitter rivals Barcelona.

'Remarkable growth'

According to those most recent figures, for 2007/08, the club saw its revenue hit £290m during that season.


Real Madrid has a history of buying the world's best players
Whilst Real Madrid's 4% revenue growth in 2007/08 was more modest than in preceding years, it meant that across a six year period the club had doubled its annual revenues since 2002.

Perhaps crucially, it also gave the club a revenue lead of 41m euros (£32.5m) over Manchester United, in second place.

"The engine driving Real's remarkable revenue growth, and its ascent to the top of the money league, has been the club's ability to increase commercial revenue," said Dan Jones, author of the Deloitte report, when it was issued in February.

Matchday revenue has also increased significantly in the past couple of years thanks to the reconfiguring of areas of the club's stadium to increase corporate hospitality capacity and hence revenues.

Average attendances at their home ground - the 80,354-capacity Santiago Bernabéu football stadium - are the third-highest in Europe.

Emerging markets

After the purchase of David Beckham from Manchester United in 2003, Real Madrid cleverly projected their brand into East Asia, on the back of the England star's appeal.

"That was all about the race by the big European clubs to crack the East Asian, Indian and other emerging markets first, and the race is still going on," says Nigel Currie, of marketing and sponsorship giants Brand Rapport.


There will be massive TV deals coming up for them [Real Madrid] overseas in the next few years

Nigel Currie, Brand Rapport
"However good the Premier League and Spain's La Liga are, there is an elite breaking away, led by the likes of Real Madrid."

He added: "What they are doing is partly a response to Barcelona's success, but these signings are them putting down a marker to be the top club and football brand in the world."

Mr Currie said Real were targeting the world's best players - who were also the world's most marketable players.

'Fickle allegiance'

That, Mr Currie added, meant that in emerging markets fans may swap allegiance, from - for example - Manchester United to Real Madrid, simply because they preferred to support star players rather than clubs.

"They are far more fickle in terms of allegiance," he said. "But it is not about Real looking to sell more merchandising in places like China, in fact they would not make a great deal from doing that.


Real Madrid will look to attract Kaka fans to their brand
"They are looking to make money from these signings by maximising their future overseas TV rights," says Mr Currie.

"There will be massive TV deals coming up for them overseas in the next few years, that is the big carrot.

"With the developments this week Real Madrid will already have restored their profile and status to number one in these emerging markets.

"And the team that has the most marketable players, and the most supporters, will get the best TV deals."

'Important role'

The television money, both overseas and at home, is crucial to Real's surge in income in recent years.


Since 1997 Spanish clubs have sold their own rights individually.

Real Madrid signed its latest deal in 2006 - for a reported record 1.1bn euros - with Spanish film and TV company Mediapro for seven seasons of broadcast rights.

That works out at a huge 150m euros a year.

"Spanish television rights have increased significantly in the past three years, and would no doubt play an important role in these large Real Madrid transfers," says James Pickles, editor of industry journal TV Sports Markets.

Big name sponsors

But overseas merchandising, domestic and TV rights, and matchday earnings are not Real's only income streams.

It also has a number of high profile sponsorship partners - Bwin.com, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Audi, and Spanish beer brand Mahou.

An image rights deal with Adidas alone in early 2007 garnered them 762m euros.


Real Madrid president Florentino Perez (l) with former glamour player Alfredo Di Stefano
Another benefit, one that helps attract top name players, is the fact that tax legislation allows their foreign players to pay tax at about 23% for the first five years that they are in the country.

It also helps that Real - from before the 1950s heyday of Di Stefano - is considered the "establishment team" and can call on close links with the government or city authorities when cash is tight.

Last but by no means least is the fact that Real, like Barcelona, are exempt from demands imposed on the majority of Spanish football clubs to become publicly listed companies.

Unlike the majority of European football clubs, Real Madrid are owned by its thousands of members, known as "socios", who elect the president.

That leaves it free of all the ramifications for takeovers and potential debt issues that being a listed company could involve.

In its report Deloitte said it would be difficult to see anyone topping Real Madrid at the top of the money league next year, but added "it will be interesting to see how the club copes with the loss of the Brand Beckham effect."

It appears Real are now answering that question by plugging that gap with the purchase of Kaka, and proposed purchase of Ronaldo