• Exchange at the goal.Keylor Navas goes to PSG, Areola arrives on loan to Real Madrid
  • Opinion.Neymar captive, by David Gistau
  • The last signings. Icardi, to the PSG; Jesé, at Sporting in Lisbon

UEFA created the financial Fair Play in 2011 because it was becoming a mother and there was a danger that historic clubs could go bankrupt. But, before the monstrous growth of the show , it was necessary to continue feeding the beast. That is why the Association of European Clubs, in 2018, decided that if before it could spend 30 million euros more than what was entered into sales, that margin should relax and stretch up to 100 million. Without being binding, yes . But not with those.

Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​entities that have often pointed out the abusive practices of the so-called State-clubs, spent a great time in this last window. So much so that at the last minute they had to turn off the tap after so much seizure. So much that they were the two clubs in the world that paid the most in signings (307.5 million euros the whites, 255 million the azulgrana). With Atlético de Madrid just behind (243.5), and ahead of the champions of Italy and England . Juventus disbursed 188.5 million, while Manchester City of Guardiola, which saw the market close on August 8, spent 168 million.

Atlético is the club of the European bourgeoisie that has best managed to balance its accounts , obtaining a positive balance of 72.1 million euros thanks to obtaining 315.6 million in sales -by the transfer for a season of Kalinic to the Rome earned 2.5 million. The departure of Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona (120 million), Lucas Hernández al Bayern (80 million) or Rodri al City (70 million) allowed the rojiblancos to take on the most expensive footballer of the summer, the Portuguese youngster Joao Félix (126 millions). Fulfilling the UEFA Fair Play should not be a problem, although more doubts raised the suitability of incorporating Rodrigo in exchange for 60 million euros. He had to stay in Valencia. Milan's refusal to pay for Correa helped the operation vanish. And Atlético always feeling oppressed before the other scale of control, the salary limit proposed by the Spanish clubs and that LaLiga adjusts and corrects. The rojiblancos had a limit of 305 million euros last February.

Propaganda with Neymar

Although there is no more paradigmatic case of the grotesque reversal of the monetary culture of football than the failure of the Barcelona negotiations for the signing of Neymar. The Barca club, from the outset, was aware that it could not face a transfer operation that involved any disbursement. I could only undertake a pure and hard exchange for footballers - despite the fact that Dembélé, Rakitic and even Todibo did not show any interest and they all ended up staying - or implore for an assignment. Its balance of expenses and sales in signings offered a negative 98.60 million euros. That is, just at the limit set by the UEFA Fair Play. The fireworks of the Barcelona delegations in their two visits to Paris, perhaps directed to please the foremen of the costumes, responded in the end to a simple propaganda exercise.

Barcelona had a double problem, unacceptable at the accounting level. Not only would he have had to negotiate with the UEFA Club Financial Control Committee so that his disbursement did not end in sanction - the highest European body first assesses the circumstances and opens their respective files. If Neymar had been incorporated, the Barça club could hardly have supported the salary mass of the first team. The Brazilian charges 30 million euros net of annual file in the PSG .

All this without liquidity to face the business. Barcelona signed a loan of 140 million euros last October with two US investment funds to meet the needs of the entity. In addition, he had to formalize another loan, this time of 35 million, to be able to pay part of the 120 million euros that the Griezmann clause cost . He even settled the summer window by signing Pedri, a 16-year-old striker from Las Palmas for whom he will not pay until July 1, 2020 (a minimum of five million euros) and will continue for another year at the Canarian club.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, closed the market without stridency. He transferred Keylor Navas to the PSG for about 15 million euros and received the transfer for a season of Areola. But Zidane was left without what had been his main obsession this summer, Paul Pogba, held at Manchester United . Like Neymar in the PSG, he will have to welcome Icardi (assigned by Inter to Parisians, with a purchase option of 70 million) . Like Bale or James in Madrid. The negative balance of the white club in purchases and sales has ended up around 150 million. Although, with room to correct, the show can continue.

Without losing the fear of the abyss.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Neymar
  • PSG
  • Real Madrid
  • Paul Pogba
  • Rodri
  • Rodrigo Moreno
  • UEFA
  • Antoine Griezmann
  • Atlético de Madrid
  • Coutinho
  • Gareth Bale
  • Ousmane Dembélé
  • Keylor Navas
  • Manchester City
  • Manchester United
  • sports
  • football
  • First division

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