A new type of fan is wandering around Italy. Under his arm he holds the Gazzetta dello sport and the Sole 24 Ore, two different shades of pink, one brighter, more passionate, the other more aseptic. The modern fan, son of that modern football to which many, in words say No!, has begun to diversify his interests and alongside his core business, the field and dreams of top player (sooner or later, I trust, the abuse of this expression will get boring), today he improvises himself as an expert in economics, ever more attentive to the financial statements of his own clubs, as well as sports ones. And in the case of Juve, Rome and Lazio – the only three companies listed on Piazza Affari – also keep an eye on the stock exchange list.
Football, in its own way, reflects the country. Gone are the heroic 90s and the early XNUMXs, in which everyone could believe themselves, or pretend to be rich, a new era seems to have opened. The great tycoons, or at least the few survivors among them, have tightened the purse strings, leaving the management of football things to more obscure figures, CEOs and similar, with a single and clear watchword: cut expenses . Get up and walk, they seem to say to their creatures, now forced more and more to move on their own legs, or rather to finance themselves. Unless some Russian or Asian (Inter are hoping for Indonesian Thohir) or Arab tycoon arrives.
Times change and something moves. There are those who have managed to arrive at virtuous results and those who, on the other hand, are struggling, in the name of huge mountains of salaries, to take the path of balance sheet assets. To help the economist fan, with a punctual and precise picture, is a survey by Milano Finanza on the financial statements of the major Italian football clubs and on those of their subsidiaries.
Aurelio De Laurentis' Napoli is a strong candidate for the role of virtuous model, whose financial statements shine more than those of the family business, Filmauro dei Cinepoattoni, which, in the five years between 2008 and 2012, recorded a overall net result of 3,757 million euros, against the statutory profit of 42 million achieved by the Neapolitan team, which closed all the last 5 financial statements with profits. All this, seasoned by goals from Cavani and Lavezzi first and those, the Neapolitan fans, Insigne and Higuain hope today, as well as those of the ever-present Marek Hamsik.
The same objective, but different bases, however, for the leading company in the field, Juve (which is also listed on the Stock Exchange) chaired by Andrea Agnelli and controlled by the family safe, Exor which in 2011, closed with a loss of 95 million, had to inject 77,6 million euros into the company's coffers, out of a total increase of 120 million. But the music has changed since then, both for victories on the field and for constant improvements in balance sheets. Juventus, precisely because of its structure, needs to achieve independence from its subsidiary: the objective, in addition to the owned stadium and sports results, also involves, however, thinning the squad and controlling engagement expenses.
The two Milanese, accounts in hand, are the two companies most dependent on their parent fathers. AC Milan, despite being the Italian company that records the highest revenues, has closed its financial statements in the red for the last 5 years, forcing Silvio Berlusconi to cover losses of 248 million, about a quarter of the dividends collected by Fininvest.
Massimo Moratti, who is apparently preparing to sell 70% of the company to the Indonesian Thohir, has injected 472,978 million euros into the coffers of Fc Internazionale over the last 5 years, against a total statutory redundancy of 535,699 million euros euros in the period considered. Moratti, who since 2008, given the crisis of the family company, has collected dividends from Saras of only, so to speak, 50 million, has however collected 891 million from the placement on the stock exchange of 16,6% of the oil company. The expenses of the Inter patron, the true epitome of the patron willing to do anything for the good of his team, earned the Nerazzurri at least the joy of Jose Mourinho's treble.
From Milan we go to Rome. What the Capitoline companies have in common is the fact that they are listed on the Stock Exchange, and little more. Lazio, 66,6% controlled by Claudio Lotito, closed the last 5 financial statements with total assets of just over 9 million euros. The picturesque, and much contested, president of the biancocelesti never touched his personal assets in the period in question, always keeping the club on discrete sporting levels.
Roma has entered a new phase of management: no longer the romantic paternalism of the Sensi, but the raw business of the Americans who, faced with a loss-making budget and yet another year without the revenues of the European cups, did not hesitate to time to sell the valuable pieces of the team on the market, to face the losses: Marquinhos, Osvaldo and Lamela (coming soon) left for a total figure close to 80 million euros. At the moment, the Americans have injected 50 million euros into the yellow and red coffers.
A virtuous model, on the other hand, recognizable even to the naked eye, is Udinese: for years a melting pot of terrible kids to then be sold for their weight in gold (the next one will be the Colombian Muriel, who remembers, given due proportions, the first Ronaldo) who, under the wise guidance of Di Natale and Guidolin, obtain enviable sporting results, against balance sheets, almost always, in surplus, so much so that in 2008 they even managed to detach a dividend of around 4 million euros .
Fiorentina, controlled by the Della Valle brothers through a limited partnership, closed with a negative aggregate of 45 million in the period considered, promptly covered by the owners. The club, however, closed the 2012 financial statements with positives and aims, taking as an example a reality like that of Napoli, to go it alone, without weighing on the coffers of the parent company, accompanying everything with sporting results, such as those of the last season, up to a demanding square.
