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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28 Responses to “Finding success as a selling club”
You may be a F.C.Porto fan, a club where corruption reigns, but that does not learn in Wikipedia!!!
What does that have to do with anything? I was just highlighting the fact that Porto have been winning Championships everyseason for the whole of this decade even though they have been selling their stars every season.
Joe, you seem to continue to admire a club which has nothing, and I mean NOTHING, no be proud of. Their wins are based in maneuvers outside the pitch, for the last 25 years. Controlling the domestic league, they are in Europe every year and of course, they gain visibility, “prestige” and money.
Please take a moment to investigate a little and learn how they, among other things, got sentenced to a loss of 6 points in the portuguese 2007/2008 league. Still a ridiculous penalty but hey, that’s how stuff works here in Portugal. You would be amazed how corrupt our society is and football (Porto) is the prime example. Maybe you shoud write an article about that. But first, please, get your facts straight and don’t take what you read here as proof.
Sir Alex Ferguson once said “Porto buys their championships in the supermarket.” You can begin by searching this on Google.
@Eyes Wide Open - That has nothing to do with anything in this article. FC Porto have shown time and time again by challenging for top honours that they are a successful selling club. They have won the league everyseason for the past 4 years yet they continue to lose their players, do you want to tell me thats all down to corruption? Give credit where credit is due. They participate in the Champions League every season and always go beyond the group stages is that all down to corruption?
Mr. Misika, I truly admire patience in answering to the Portuguese sports fundamentalists. It is funny to see that at every news or reports about FCP, the first comments are always from benfica fanatics.
This type of supporter is very usual in Portugal (they are the club with the biggest number of fans, yet…) because during the years of dictatorship that our country had to bare, benfica was part of the “population control system” implemented by our dictator, making benfica the stronger club in Portugal an capable of competing internationally, thus making proud a huge number of fans…. However this sweet reality for benfica supporters was 40 years ago!!!
Like every snob monarch, they seem to think that they are the only club who is entitled to win, and probably, like a lot of snob monarchs, they will face many economic problems in a close future.
These guys that constantly have excuses about their failures, namely the supposed corruption case that involved porto (which by the way was dismissed by every law court in Portugal and also in the TAS), they are not football fans they only are supporters of their club, the mighty benfica, that despite the corruption in the Portuguese league (their favourite excuse for their in success), is able to proudly represent Portugal in the uefa cup, like we saw last season.
In a group with european football giants like Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Hertha Berlim and Metalist (?!?!) benfica was able to draw a match against herta berlin, to loose at olympiacos 5-1, to loose at lisbon with galatasaray 0-2, and to loose at home against Metalist (?!?!)… ONE point in TWELVE possible points.
Corruption they say??!! Ridiculous isn’t it?
One more thing, you will likely receive a lot of insults from some Portuguese fans (you go figure…), revealing their inability to process information, and probably accusing you of being a corrupted journalist, that writes what FCP asks you to right…
This behaviour is well in line with the golden years of benfica, when victories happened because they had great players (no irony in this statement), but also because they were a success face of a dictatorship.
I just read the previous article about the amsterdam tournament, and what seemed to be a fairly innocuous article, was perceived by benfica fans (Taliban’s) as an insult to their club. You go figure….
This type of behaviour and fans are clearly related with years of support from the fascist regimen but those years are long gone…
The only thing benfica has big nowadays s their stadium, and also their fan base, although diminishing every year, so every time you talk about porto you will get for sure a lot of benfica football PHd’s, posting insults, forged videos, and with a very specific democratic approach to a JOURNALIST opinion, simply based on WHATCHING football matches.
Joe, Porto has the stability that no other club in Portugal has. Of course no everything is corruption but it was the corruption that gave them the consecutive wins, that has created that “winning mentality”, their “drive”. You see, it’s a lot easier when you’re on top…
Of course, I’m a Benfica supporter, obviously, so my words may be perceived as biased; however they’re not.
Porto has completely dominated the portuguese league for decades now. That alone would be something to be suspicious about, but hey, there’s proof of how they’ve done it! Sure, great players, Champions League regulars, big money but most of that comes from behind the scenes.
You know, I’m repeating myself, so I’ll just say it one more time. It’s so obvious it takes only a couple of minutes, say on Youtube, to see actual proof, I mean VIDEO of what I’m saying here.
I respect your opinion Joe, but I cannot agree with praising such a club.
Took me 10 min to find these and there were a lot more… Paulo plz show me some of these mistakes, both in severity and recurrence that favoured Benfica.
Not sure what all this talk about championship corruption is, but the fact is that FCPorto did a very good run in the Champion’s League this year, almost took us down. The other portuguese teams I heard about did terribly in international competitions, so I’m guessing they’re creating excuses? Not sure, not gonna throw myself in the fight.
If one club wins, it´s easier to sell. But have you ever researched for how do they win? Do you know something Apito Dourado and how big it was? Did you know that a big part of the leaders from that vast corruption cycle are still in Portuguese football now days? Do you know how much players does porto have distributed among the other clubs from the same competition? And coaches? There is a lot of research you could do on this matters if you wanted to profound a little more your article. And about this “finance loans and interest payments on their stadium — Estádio do Dragão — the Dragon Stadium”. Do you know that Porto had help from Portugal state in with 226 millions euros, + 28,5 millions (illegal support from the porto´s mayor) + 25 millions from the porto metro president (oh, he was also the Portuguese 1ºst league football president, his name is in hundreds of crimes in the process). As you can see is not really has you told us. And speaking of stadiums, let me talk about just one more thing.
To say that Benfica was the club of the state is the biggest lie ever and an insult to all the ones who made Benfica what it is. To start, nothing really significant, Benfica played red, the color of communism and the color that Salazar hated the most. During the dictatorship Benfica was the only club and one of the few institutions that were ruled by democracy, which obliviously wasn’t something that Salazar liked… In fact for twice he tried to abort Benfica elections but he couldn’t and they took place. He liked so much Benfica that while Sporting and Porto had the stadium offered by him, with celebrations and nazi salutes, Benfica was playing from stadium to stadium where they could. Happily Benfica fans gathered and made estádio da luz that ended up being much bigger that the two state stadiums mentioned before. Ah one interesting thing, 1st time Portugal could have a team at the champions cup did you know that Benfica was the champion in title but Salazar ordered Sporting to go instead of Benfica? And that Benfica has more titles won after Salazar´s fall than before? Or that Benfica´s first anthem was forbidden buy state policy because it used communist terms? Or that at the end of the world war II, people went to the streets to celebrate with Benfica flags substituting the forbidden Russian flags? This and a a lot more gives Benfica an unique story and i´m writing all this with my poor english because i can´t let this glorious story be corrupted by lies. For that i already have Portuguese football.
FC Porto have found success with them losing their stars every year since 2004 when they won the Champions League but they have still managed to dominate the portuguese liga. I dont think a team can win 9 of the last 10 league titles on corruption only, you have to admit that talent also rules in this regard.
i love to see benfica fans crying..really..i love it..its so pathetic but at the same time so amuzing..the government once saved benfica from bankruptcy by injecting money into the club for shares that didnt exist..thats great..because as a Porto fan (we r getting bigger and bigger)i hope to mock benfica mediocrecy for a lot of years to come
I don’t even see why we’re talking about Benfica. Weren’t they the ones who didn’t even classify in the UEFA cup group stage? Why are they claiming they are better than FCPorto, who almost eliminated Manchester United?
That’s a lie. The courts aqcuitted most of the charges, not all (lack of proof, although there are taped phone calls the court declared were not valid!). Porto was sentenced with attempted corruption. Fact.
Porto where never convicted of anything. They were deducted 6 points for attempted bribery, they didnt commit the crime they nearly committed the crime - http://bit.ly/MXCAg - Three teams, five referees punished in scandal.
Not guilty? Really? So, if you try to assault a person on the street and you fail, that’s not punishable behaviour? LOL
I have no idea of what is your concept of fairplay… If you think theres’s no problem with attempted bribery… Whatever man…
Porto was declared and proved guilty by the portuguese league justice council of attempted bribery for a couple of games, a drop of water in a sea of s**t.
- Convicted with 6 points from a Portuguese league court (not a “legal” court, but a council that works for the Portuguese league, constituted by 5 lawyers - not judges).
- Not guilty in the 5 processes that took place in the Portuguese COURTS OF LAW.
- Not guilty in the claim that benfica (4th place in the Portuguese league in 2008) made against Porto in UEFA an in the TAS (foreign judges), to attempt to participate in the champions league. A club that is 4th wanting to participate in the champions league, kind of desperate, no??
These are the facts that you guys don’t see.
The law exists to protect the society from popular justice, that usually is not very well informed, is biased and fanatic…
Justice is made of facts, proofs, not gossip that one has in the pub with friends….
You mean the same courts of law that considered the recorded phone calls “unconstitutional” and “not valid”?
As for the CL thing, I know, you Porto fans almost pissed your pants when UEFA announced you were out… Benfica and Guimaraes did the obvious, and tried to seize the opportunity… Your club would do the same for sure. And you have to thank our slow and bureaucratic justice for that, because TAS dismissed the case on the grounds of the decision not being final at the time…
And I don’t see what you’re saing about gossip… What I’ve said so far is based solely on facts.
Facts???
You talk about the phone calls an important peice of evidence according to you. Let me inform you of a FACT:
- The phone calls were acepted by portuguese courts.
What you say is a LIE. They were acepted, period.
It would be better for you to inform yourself a little bit better than you are, probably because all de data that you have is from the benfica club newspaper.
Yes, I already admitted I was wrong about the refusal of the recordings. They were accepted despite the numerous attempts from Porto’s lawyers to make them unusable.
But you, as other Porto fans, should really believe that JP ain’t a referee, or that fruit really is fruit. And chocolate too. Your president really enjoyed discussing cuisine with others, especially those with inluence on referees.
Right?
You guys continue to hide behind the near unexistent presence of impossible-to-deny evidence to justify the fact that your club is sustained by these and many other maneuvers…
Do you think that I haven’t my eyes wide open, to see the amount of errors of referees favouring benfica in Portuguese league games?
For more than 30 years that I see football, and in every season I see Porto being benefited, being robbed, the same way that happens with Benfica and with Sporting. It’s always the same. The big three are benefited and robbed. That’s football.
The amount of excuses and justifications you guys use is incredible. You guys never look to the important stuff.
What do you think about 17 coaches on 15 seasons? Thus this ring any bell? Probably not. To any one that looks at the game in a critic and analytic way this is a stat that shows a lot of the errors committed by benfica, and most of their insuccess, but not for you guys, because you guys have found the perfect excuse (in your head) to justify 25 years of total domination from Porto.
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Joseph Misika is a web applications developer at the Mail&Guardian Online. He has been working there for just under 3 years now but has been playing around with web applications for more years than that.
A student at heart and always looking to learn new stuff. He is currently focused on web development, linux (think there is more to linux than we know) and gaming (Playstation). His interests range from sports to development. In the future looking to build a media & technology empire. Favourite teams are Mamelodi Sundowns (SA) and Manchester United (abroad).
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You may be a F.C.Porto fan, a club where corruption reigns, but that does not learn in Wikipedia!!!
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