Rebirth 1994: Football Situation

Chapter 603 Europe 2003 Finance
"Three in a row! After two games without a win, Newcastle turned things around in no time and they silenced all their critics with a beautiful three-game winning streak, Southampton, Fulham and Middlesbrough, Newcastle The three opponents defeated may not seem surprising, but you must know that, except for Southampton, the games against Fulham and Middlesbrough are all away games, and the scores of these three games are three to one. Zero, four to two and three to one! Three goals conceded in three games, not great, but much better than last season, and ten goals scored in three games is even better than last season …Last season Newcastle was No.3, what number will it be this season? After three consecutive victories, they have leapt to fourth place, only behind Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea... What is even more frightening is , in the away game against Middlesbrough, Newcastle even hid their main striker partners Shearer and Ibrahimovic, and Viduka and Bellamy each scored a goal-the main force can Goals are scored frequently, and he can also score goals when he comes off the bench. Such a striker is enough to scare all the Premier League teams! The attack is strong, and the defense is also improving. After the initial discomfort, Lucio The world champion has already begun to show his quality, and Woodgate's centre-back partnership is one of the best in the Premier League, with a trusty Dawson and promising Taylor waiting on the bench. What kind of waves will Newcastle create in the Premier League with a stronger attack than last season and a much improved defense?"

"Nine league games, Newcastle won six of them, and the two losses were only to Manchester United and Arsenal, and in those two games Newcastle was away. Now Newcastle ranks fourth with 22 points. The gap with the top three is very small, Chelsea has six wins, two draws and one loss with 23 points, Manchester United has seven wins, one draw and one loss with [-] points, Arsenal has seven wins and two draws with [-] points, this is the top four points, this year's Premier League is no longer The rivalry between Manchester United and Arsenal is a battle between four countries! As we expected, after the big moves in the pre-season transfer market, Newcastle and Chelsea have risen rapidly, enough to threaten the relationship between Manchester United and Arsenal. Dominance in the Premier League!"

"Look, there is a three-game winning streak, and we are immediately praised to the sky." Pei Wei smiled and put down the newspaper in his hand, and said to Su Mei: "Sometimes the British tabloids and the Chinese sports media have a similar relationship." spell."

"The media is like this. When it's good, everyone praises it, and when it's bad, everyone criticizes it. You've been in football for so many years, so don't you think so?" Su Mei ate breakfast answer.

"That's right, you can just read this kind of report when you're bored, there's no need to take it to heart." Pei Wei threw the newspaper aside: "But I've just arrived in the Premier League, so I have to pay attention to the British media's evaluation of me... After all Although some reports are jokes in the eyes of insiders, they can guide the fans' point of view...By the way, what about the club's financial income?"

"Yes, the purchasing power of England fans is really strong, especially after Ibrahimovic's outstanding performance recently, his NO.18 jersey is almost out of stock, of course the best-selling jersey is Shearer's jersey." Su Mei rubbed Wiping his mouth: "The sales of tickets are also very good. The package tickets are sold out before the start of the season. There are at least [-] fans watching the game at each home stadium. No wonder Newcastle is the most popular English football club in the Premier League. There are many rich people in the club who are fans of Newcastle, and none of the expensive boxes are empty."

"Newcastle has this kind of potential, their tradition, the enthusiasm of their fans... To be honest, I don't want to lose money when I buy Newcastle... With Newcastle's current financial income, at least it won't cause losses on players' wages."

"Of course not. The income from home games alone is enough to cover the salaries of the players. However, the salaries of Newcastle players have never been too high. Shearer is the highest salary in the team and only takes 350 million pounds. It's only been a year, and among the old players under him, only Dyer has received a big contract of 300 million. Others like Shay, Woodgate, Robert and Bellamy can get close to 200 million, but the few newcomers who came this year Among them, the annual salary of Makelele and Lucio is 300 million. Ibrahimovic, Nie Fei, Trabelsi, and Hart are all 200 million. Higher, now Newcastle spends more than 5000 million pounds on wages a year." Su Mei didn't check the information or anything, and reported it directly.

"That's not too much. Do you know what Chelsea's salary is? 8000 million pounds in wages, Manchester United also has more than 300 million. Except for Arsenal, our salary is the lowest among the top four. Newcastle's board of directors stipulated last year The salary cap is 1000 million. Now we have ten more good players, but only about [-] million more. Not much, really not much. As long as we play well in the Champions League, the dividends will be more than a few Ten million... Oh boy, no wonder the rich families in Europe are so rich. Being able to play the Champions League is equivalent to entering a money printing factory." After thinking for a while, Pei Wei said: "In a few years, our salary expenditure will I'm afraid there will be more, and the expenditure of about [-] million will be worthy of the value of a championship team, but the income will also rise at that time. This is the case in European football. It will be good, the team’s performance is good, the income will be more, the worst thing is to spend money but not get good results, then you can only watch the money go to waste, Leeds, Lazio and Leverkusen are A good example, if you can’t recover the cost, you can only sell the stars, and the more you sell, the more you will lose... But I am not afraid of this, because I have enough funds to invest... Haha."

Su Mei smiled and said nothing. Indeed, investing in football, especially big money, is similar to investing in real estate. It is a large amount of capital investment in the early stage. What is needed is immediate results, cost recovery, and then investment, and then recovery, so that Only then will there be no problems, and it will develop slowly, but as long as one link in the middle is broken, the entire chain will stop running, and it will be over at that time.

But if you have an almost unlimited amount of funds to invest, then you have nothing to fear, and the house has not been sold yet?Don’t be afraid, it will always be sold, as long as you are not afraid of capital accumulation—the problem is that many real estate companies use loans to build houses, and sell them as they go. , If you can't sell it, then wait for death.If the club does not win the championship after investing a lot of money, and cannot recover the cost quickly, then it can only fall into the deficit-sell the stars-the performance declines-the income drops sharply-sell the stars again-the performance declines again- In the vicious circle, isn't that how Liz died.

Why did Moratti throw Inter Milan for so many years without smashing it, while Lazio and Leeds were smashed abruptly? The difference is that Moratti threw his own money, Craniotti and Leeds What Dyer spent was the shareholders’ money—even if Inter Milan hasn’t won the championship for more than ten years, Moratti’s money will be spent, and there is no need to sell players to repay the debt, and the income of those two at the club cannot After topping up the expenses, you can only rely on selling stars to pay off the debt. This is the difference.

"But our sponsors seem a little too stingy...Adidas is only willing to pay 400 million in sponsorship fees a year, and Northern Rock Bank, which is advertised on the chest, is the ninth largest bank in the UK, only a mere 200 million a year...Damn it , must be replaced when the time comes, Yunjiatianyu’s annual advertising revenue on jerseys is more than 2000 million yuan.” Pei Wei said a little annoyed.

"Newcastle didn't live on this before, so naturally they don't care too much." Su Mei nodded: "It doesn't matter whether Adidas changes or not, but it's best not to move Northern Rock Bank. They are the largest bank on the northeast coast of England. It's Newcastle. People’s own bank, I’m afraid it can’t be moved for the time being, but the advertisement behind it can be replaced, and that kind of beer is only willing to sell 50 yuan a year, and it happens to expire next year, and a better one will come up.”

"Well, if this year's results can be better than last year, we can have the confidence to negotiate. Adidas and Northern Rock Bank have only one year left in their contracts. At that time, the jersey sponsorship will increase by at least 200 million, and the chest advertisements will be at least If you want to increase it to 500 million, as a giant, if the advertisement on the jersey can’t even reach 1000 million pounds, then what’s the fuss. If Adidas doesn’t want to, I’ll replace it. I’ll switch to a domestic brand. Li Ning, isn’t Li Ning just planning now? Are you going to enter the international market? You will be very happy to cooperate with us. At that time, the advertisements on the back and shorts can also be sold to them. The one on the chest...is still Northern Rock Bank, but it must increase the price. Which European giant's chest advertisement The income is only 200 million, Barcelona has no tradition of selling chest ads, we are not the same."

Su Mei nodded knowingly. In terms of jerseys, Pei Wei definitely planned to use domestic brands. Anyway, the quality of domestic sports brands in China is already quite good. What is lacking is only the international reputation. Well, using a domestic brand will have immeasurable benefits for Newcastle to enter the country in the future, such as... cost.

But there is no need to worry about it now. Newcastle’s reputation in China is definitely not as big as other giants. After all, Newcastle’s influence is basically limited to the UK. It was only after Pei Wei’s acquisition of Newcastle that Chinese fans became more interested in this veteran team. A lot of interest has increased. To increase the number of Newcastle fans in China, we have to get some results.

For example, the next two matches in the Champions League group stage...

PS: Update on ticket #520...

Thank you Woodcutter for your advice. Indeed, Ibrahimovic has already received a red card in the first Champions League game, and it is impossible to play in the match against Marseille. I really don’t take UEFA’s rules and regulations seriously... It was Shearer who scored the first goal against Marseille, not Ibrahimovic. Ibrahimovic had to score the first goal against Southampton.

(End of this chapter)