It’s all gone quiet over here
August 19th 2009 22:40
After chomping at the bit for the League One season to kickoff I wonder if anybody out there is wondering if we would enjoyed an extra week of peace and quiet.
Of course not. Despite a couple of defeats at the start of season Tis and the lads have continued to win admirers up and down the country.
This feeling cannot be shared by fans of clubs in Argentina however as they have seen their Apertura season pushed back by a week due to cash strapped clubs including Boca Juniors unable to pay their players.
Some questionable bookkeeping from the teams have led to Agremiados, the Argentine players’ union, using the law to block the clubs from signing any players until they paid the ones already on the books.
Julio Grondona, in his thirtieth year as head of the AFA, was forced to act fast in getting matters settled up and called for a series of meetings with government officials including the country’s President Cristina Kirchner.
It turned out to be an inspired move by Grondona as the increasingly unpopular head of state feared taking the blame for a lack of football in country.
The cash strapped government paid out over £100 million to the clubs in return for the rights to televise matches. A move which has left the current broadcasters of the league scratching their heads.
The trouble is that the cash injection is a mere band aid on the far bigger problem of money haemorrhaging out of the game in Argentina.
One traditional source of revenue for the clubs has been the sale of players to Europe’s cash rich leagues.
I know you have been bored to tears with the debacle that was Carlos Tevez’s transfer to West Ham United. The saga clogged up the back pages as Sheffield United sued the club over the legitimacy of the deal.
The pity is that it’s the very issue of third-party ownership of players that has disrupted Argentine football and caused such malaise in its current financial situation.
For example imagine Sir Tis didn’t have his far reaching fingers into the game for one second. In that instance we are recommended a central defender from a league well below our own status. All of a sudden that player becomes a top goalscorer, a defensive lynchpin and our captain.
Well one of the financially cash strapped clubs in Argentina is Clausura runners-up Huracán. El Globo’s shining light last season was Javier Pastore and it would be fair to presume the midfield talisman’s £6 million transfer to Serie A’s Palermo would generate the kind of income to keep the Buenos Aires’ club afloat.
However, Pastore was never officially on Huracán’s books. Instead he was at the club on loan from lower league Talleres who owned 45% of his registration whilst the majority was owned by an investment group for which they paid £200,000.
The Pastore deal sees a chunky £3 million leaving the game and more and more of these third-party deals are seeing clubs in Argentina out of pocket.
“Before, the players were part of the assets of the clubs. The invention of agents was a misfortune.” Said Grondona, a FIFA vice-president. “It can't be that a person owns 30 percent of a player and another 40 percent. It seems like we're talking about cows.”
Up the City!
Tim
http://timsturtridge.com/
Of course not. Despite a couple of defeats at the start of season Tis and the lads have continued to win admirers up and down the country.
This feeling cannot be shared by fans of clubs in Argentina however as they have seen their Apertura season pushed back by a week due to cash strapped clubs including Boca Juniors unable to pay their players.
Some questionable bookkeeping from the teams have led to Agremiados, the Argentine players’ union, using the law to block the clubs from signing any players until they paid the ones already on the books.
Julio Grondona, in his thirtieth year as head of the AFA, was forced to act fast in getting matters settled up and called for a series of meetings with government officials including the country’s President Cristina Kirchner.
It turned out to be an inspired move by Grondona as the increasingly unpopular head of state feared taking the blame for a lack of football in country.
The cash strapped government paid out over £100 million to the clubs in return for the rights to televise matches. A move which has left the current broadcasters of the league scratching their heads.
The trouble is that the cash injection is a mere band aid on the far bigger problem of money haemorrhaging out of the game in Argentina.
One traditional source of revenue for the clubs has been the sale of players to Europe’s cash rich leagues.
I know you have been bored to tears with the debacle that was Carlos Tevez’s transfer to West Ham United. The saga clogged up the back pages as Sheffield United sued the club over the legitimacy of the deal.
The pity is that it’s the very issue of third-party ownership of players that has disrupted Argentine football and caused such malaise in its current financial situation.
For example imagine Sir Tis didn’t have his far reaching fingers into the game for one second. In that instance we are recommended a central defender from a league well below our own status. All of a sudden that player becomes a top goalscorer, a defensive lynchpin and our captain.
Well one of the financially cash strapped clubs in Argentina is Clausura runners-up Huracán. El Globo’s shining light last season was Javier Pastore and it would be fair to presume the midfield talisman’s £6 million transfer to Serie A’s Palermo would generate the kind of income to keep the Buenos Aires’ club afloat.
However, Pastore was never officially on Huracán’s books. Instead he was at the club on loan from lower league Talleres who owned 45% of his registration whilst the majority was owned by an investment group for which they paid £200,000.
The Pastore deal sees a chunky £3 million leaving the game and more and more of these third-party deals are seeing clubs in Argentina out of pocket.
“Before, the players were part of the assets of the clubs. The invention of agents was a misfortune.” Said Grondona, a FIFA vice-president. “It can't be that a person owns 30 percent of a player and another 40 percent. It seems like we're talking about cows.”
Up the City!
Tim
http://timsturtridge.com/
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