O artigo seguinte é copiado na íntegra do SportsLeader e pode ser consultado no seguinte link:
http://www.sportsleader.co.za/josephmisika/2009/07/23/finding-success-as-a-selling-club/
Finding success as a selling club
A selling club is a club that has to sell its most prized assets every season to survive, they don’t generate a lot of money from marketing, sponsorships and merchandise. There are a lot of soccer clubs in Europe even if they play in the lucrative Champions League they still have to sell season in, season out for them to keep afloat and not be in debt or go down under a lot of debt like Leeds United, remember them? Now stuck in the third tier of English football.
Many clubs have tried to sell stars but have never really recovered thereafter. If the stars leave, the glory years go with them. Two such clubs are Ajax Amsterdam and PSV Eindhoven. Ajax Amsterdam have never been the same since Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus), Rafael van der Vaart and Nigel de Jong (Hamburger SV) left. Six others (Hatem Trabelsi, Tomáš Galásek, Hans Vonk, Nourdin Boukhari, Steven Pienaar and Maxwell) left the following year.
Ajax have never returned to the heights of winning two Dutch league titles and a Champions League quaterfinal exit at the hands of AC Milan — the eventual champions. And PSV Eindhoven have had their troubles too since losing influential players like Mark van Bommel, Johann Vogel, Ji Sung Park, Lee Young-Pyo and Wilfred Bouma. They won the league last year by a whisker and this year finished fourth. The story of how to sell and still be competitive every season has been re-written by FC Porto.
FC Porto have managed to survive against all odds even though they have had to sell players every season to survive and also finance loans and interest payments on their stadium — Estádio do Dragão — the Dragon Stadium. They have sold their best players to some of the biggest clubs in Europe but still manage to go beyond the group stages of the Champions League every season. They have won the Portuguese league seven times this decade and totally dominated it for the past four seasons since 2005. Since Mourinho launched them to Champions League success in the 2003-2004 season, they have managed to make close to €300 million from the sale of players. They have sold some of the top players in the world right now: Anderson (€30 millio) to Manchester United, Paulo Ferreira, Jose Bosingwa and Ricardo Carvalho (combined fee close to €100 million) to Chelsea and Ricardo Quaresma (€19 million) to Inter Milan. Their selling policy continued this season with the sale of last season’s top stars like: Lisandro Lopez and Aly Cissokho (combined fee of €39 million) to Lyon. Last season’s title-winning captain and Argentinian midfielder Lucho Gonzalez (€18 million) was shipped to Marseille.
So, one would ask how do they do it when they lose their best players every season? Teams are built not to rely on one player, like Milan when they relied on Kaka. No matter how important the player is, they are still replaceable. The club’s best trick is to pick unknown players from around the world, especially South America, and then sell them a few years later for astronomical fees to some of the bigger clubs. They have also established a good scouting network, which is always busy bringing players across the Atlantic from leagues in South America. They also always avoid a situation where a player doesn’t settle and then they lose a lot of money on him (like Manchester United did with Kleberson a few years back).
Most of the players in South America are owned by agencies, so the clubs pay the agency and get percentage rights. If the player settles, well then they buy all the rights and after another year or two in the Portuguese league they are sold to bigger clubs if they don’t they sell their rights back to the agency.
FC Porto remain one of the best supported clubs around with an average attendance of 38 000 — the highest in Portugal. The Porto success story continues to be criticised in many quarters but they continue to unearth a lot of talent, pay off their debts and not have an over-inflated wage bill like some smaller clubs in the English Premier League. They also keep on attracting talent because their immigration laws are not as draconian as the British and they also offer Champions League football every season. This could be a model to follow especially with the fall of Leeds United a few years back, crumbling under huge debts they couldn’t service.
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O comentário que transcrevo em seguida é copiado na íntegra da publicação SportsLeader e pode ser confirmado no seguinte link:
http://www.sportsleader.co.za/josephmisika/2009/07/14/the-fall-of-the-prestigious-amsterdam-tournament/
As four European clubs line up to take part in the Amsterdam Tournament from July 24 to 26, you will notice that it has lost the magic it once possessed. Big giants of European football (Manchester United, Arsenal, Internazionale, Liverpool, Porto) dreamt of playing in this prestigious tournament at the Amsterdam Arena in the Netherlands, one of the most celebrated stadiums in the world. They would use this famous tournament to fine tune their teams for the upcoming European and domestic season but not any more, especially if you look at this year’s line-up.
The line-up for the 2009 Amsterdam Tournament is Ajax Amsterdam, Atletico Madrid, Sunderland FC (Yep! That very same Sunderland that was fighting to stay in the Premier League last season) and Benfica. If you look at this line-up you will see that it’s lost its previous pulling power and really starting to fade as a prestigious tournament. The four teams contesting don’t have the attractiveness that has always boosted Amsterdam’s tourism business in July and August when the tournament is played. Sunderland finished 16th in the Premier League last season, just a mere two points above the relegation zone. Atletico Madrid finished fourth in the Spanish La Liga, Benfica finished 3rd in the Portuguese Liga and Ajax a very disappointing 3rd in the Dutch league.
The are a myriad of reasons but I will mention just a few. Ajax Amsterdam are no longer the force they used to be in the 90s and at the beginning of the century. Back then the famed Ajax Youth Academy churned out quality players at a high rate and teams would use it as a way to test their teams against one of the best, youthful teams in the world and perhaps also scout for players to recruit. Since Steven Pienaar, Rafael van der Vaart, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a host of other quality players left for greener pastures, they have never been the same or produced quality players. More controversy followed in August 2006 when Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes were sent off in the game against Porto. They were punished with a three-match ban by the English FA following a report from their Dutch counterparts. Manchester United, Rooney, Scholes and their attorneys wrote letters of protest to the FA, citing the lack of punishment to players sent off in pre-season friendlies. But the FA made the decision stick nonetheless. Sir Alex Ferguson vowed he will never take his troops to the Netherlands again. The tournament never recovered from this and since then hasn’t been the same.
Teams are also getting lucrative offers to play elsewhere. Manchester City are coming to South Africa while Internaziole, Chelsea and other big clubs have big money offers to play their pre-season friendlies in the US. Manchester United are destined for Asia where they have a huge following. A while back it used to be the only pre-season tournament in Europe but now there is the Emirates Cup, Wembley Cup and Russian Railways Cup which have more financial reward than the Amsterdam Tournament. With Ajax having a new coach who will bring in his own players and a different mentality, let’s hope the 2010 Amsterdam Tournament will be more prestigious than ever with the big guns competing once again.
http://www.sportsleader.co.za/josephmisika/2009/07/14/the-fall-of-the-prestigious-amsterdam-tournament/
As four European clubs line up to take part in the Amsterdam Tournament from July 24 to 26, you will notice that it has lost the magic it once possessed. Big giants of European football (Manchester United, Arsenal, Internazionale, Liverpool, Porto) dreamt of playing in this prestigious tournament at the Amsterdam Arena in the Netherlands, one of the most celebrated stadiums in the world. They would use this famous tournament to fine tune their teams for the upcoming European and domestic season but not any more, especially if you look at this year’s line-up.
The line-up for the 2009 Amsterdam Tournament is Ajax Amsterdam, Atletico Madrid, Sunderland FC (Yep! That very same Sunderland that was fighting to stay in the Premier League last season) and Benfica. If you look at this line-up you will see that it’s lost its previous pulling power and really starting to fade as a prestigious tournament. The four teams contesting don’t have the attractiveness that has always boosted Amsterdam’s tourism business in July and August when the tournament is played. Sunderland finished 16th in the Premier League last season, just a mere two points above the relegation zone. Atletico Madrid finished fourth in the Spanish La Liga, Benfica finished 3rd in the Portuguese Liga and Ajax a very disappointing 3rd in the Dutch league.
The are a myriad of reasons but I will mention just a few. Ajax Amsterdam are no longer the force they used to be in the 90s and at the beginning of the century. Back then the famed Ajax Youth Academy churned out quality players at a high rate and teams would use it as a way to test their teams against one of the best, youthful teams in the world and perhaps also scout for players to recruit. Since Steven Pienaar, Rafael van der Vaart, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a host of other quality players left for greener pastures, they have never been the same or produced quality players. More controversy followed in August 2006 when Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes were sent off in the game against Porto. They were punished with a three-match ban by the English FA following a report from their Dutch counterparts. Manchester United, Rooney, Scholes and their attorneys wrote letters of protest to the FA, citing the lack of punishment to players sent off in pre-season friendlies. But the FA made the decision stick nonetheless. Sir Alex Ferguson vowed he will never take his troops to the Netherlands again. The tournament never recovered from this and since then hasn’t been the same.
Teams are also getting lucrative offers to play elsewhere. Manchester City are coming to South Africa while Internaziole, Chelsea and other big clubs have big money offers to play their pre-season friendlies in the US. Manchester United are destined for Asia where they have a huge following. A while back it used to be the only pre-season tournament in Europe but now there is the Emirates Cup, Wembley Cup and Russian Railways Cup which have more financial reward than the Amsterdam Tournament. With Ajax having a new coach who will bring in his own players and a different mentality, let’s hope the 2010 Amsterdam Tournament will be more prestigious than ever with the big guns competing once again.
Deste eterno despique desgarrado...
Ha coisas que que nós não percebemos que vão mudando ano após ano e a que nem ligamos. É mais um campeonato que acabou, mais uma festa e venha o próximo... e os anos vão passando. Ainda há pouco estava a ler o artigo do Sportsleader (Sobre o qual podem ler em cima) e enquanto confirmava alguns factos que eram citados pelos "comentadores" encontrei um número fabuloso... Eu já tenho 32 anos, e ainda me lembro do tempo em que os meus tios Benfiquistas me diziam que o Benfica tinha mais campeonatos que os outros todos juntos. Também me lembro do tempo em que o Porto e o Benfica alternavam nas vitórias do campeonato e até me lembro (vejam lá bem) do Benfica jogar duas finais da Taça dos Campeoões. Na altura era um puto de 12 anos mas lembro-me que fiquei triste com falhanço do Veloso, como se o Porto tivesse perdido alguma coisa com isso (inocência da juventude, se fosse agora festejava). Foi por isso com espanto que vi que nos últimos 25 anos o Porto ganhou 18 campeonatos e 6 títulos internacionais enquanto o benfica só ganhou 4 campeonatos. É verdade que o tempo me habituou às vitórias mas sinceramente, talvez intoxicado por este país ser tão "anti-tripeiro", pelos jornais tão eufóricos nas Pré-Épocas encarnadas, vivi os últimos anos com a sensação constante de que existia em Portugal uma renhida rivalidade pela título nacional de campeão entre três grandes clubes. E afinal concluo que um qualquer miúdo de 20 anos que tenha começado a ver futebol aos 5 anos (e estou a ser precocjavascript:void(0)e) viu o Benfica ganhar um título, o Porto ganhar 11 e o Sporting 2. Afinal que raio de rivalidade e esta ?! Em que país rídiculo é que vivemos para se continuar a dar atenção a este despique ?! É que basta dar uma volta pelos desportivos desse mundo fora para perceber que o futebol Português é visto como um campeonato de segunda onde uma equipa domina tudo, em todos os termos, e as outras são fraquíssimas... E mesmo assim aqui estamos nós outra vez a ouvir o discurso do "este ano é que é " como se ganhar o segundo campeonato em 16 anos mudasse tudo o que está mal... Ao menos que o Porto faça uma boa liga dos campeoes porque ganhar o Penta já nem dará assim tanto gozo...
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