After Moreto Cassamá (Borussia M'Gladbach paid three million euros), André Silva (for AC Milan for 38 million euros), Depoitre for Huddersfield (in England guarantee for five million euros), Andrés Férnández ( 1.8 million paid by Villarreal) and Lichnovsky (plus 1.8 at the expense of Necaxa), the SAD of FC Porto is about to add the transfer of Rúben Neves (about 20 million to Wolverhampton), ensuring compliance with the agreement
Only in October the final accounts are announced, but SAD's willingness to make a sale yesterday was linked to the need to do nothing in the UEFA agreement, otherwise penalties would deteriorate. Even if the transfer has not been made official, the fact that it can be finalized in the next few days allows it to be added as an annex to the document and to prevent further sanctions, never exceeding a maximum fine of EUR 2,2 million Organism, as set out in such a May agreement. It is true that UEFA may not accept, but this is rare in such cases.
Contrary to what was written, SAD was allowed to present 30 million loss at the close of 2016/17 and not the sum of the previous three seasons, a period to which all other clubs are subject. For dragons, it would be very difficult to comply with the first form, since it transits from 2014/15 and 2015/16 with a cumulative of about 40 million negative euros. In 2017/18, the loss could be 20 million and 10 in 2018/19. If it complies scrupulously, SAD rejoins the normal regulatory mechanisms before UEFA.
Going back to the annual accounts, FC Porto presented a negative 29.6 million euros in the first half. The problem is that the revenues of the Champions League (24.4 million euros) had already been counted. That is, in terms of operating results, the second half will have been downright worse. The balance between buying and selling contributes to the damage being minimized and fitting into the values set by UEFA as mandatory, assuming that there is a failure to meet the ordinary financial fair play to which the clubs are obliged. This balance includes the transfers we listed at the beginning of the text, but also those of January (Evandro and Varela), which attenuate the money spent on the purchase of Soares in V. Guimarães.
The dragons are still making a big effort to lower the payroll. This is because there are other measures that UEFA has imposed, but have gone alongside the news. One of the most difficult is to meet a defined ratio between staff salaries and operating revenues. UEFA rules say that the amount spent should not be more than 60% of the operating income, excluding gains from player passes. In recent years, FC Porto has been close to 100%. The value of the ratio authorized by UEFA has not been disclosed and will certainly be above the standards with which it advises the clubs. But it is also, surely, below what SAD has been practicing. In the last six months, 21 players have finally disengaged from the blue and white squares. They are more than four million euros in cash.
