"Yellow submarine" Villarreal .. a point in the Liverpool sea
Between a team that plays in the semi-finals for only the second time in its history, and another that has won the title six times and reached the final on three occasions as well, Villarreal, Spain, nicknamed the "Yellow Submarine", is a point in the sea of Liverpool, which is hosting Wednesday in the Champions League semi-final first leg.
And after Juventus eliminated the Italian club from the final price by sweeping it back in Turin with three clean goals, then Bayern Munich from the quarter-finals by winning it in the first leg 1-0 and then drawing with it back at home 1-1, Villarreal Yemenis to continue his historical career in the mother continental competition by taking out Another giant the size of Liverpool.
It is true that Villarreal is not a submerged team on the continental scene, especially after winning the “Europe League” competition last season with a penalty shootout at the expense of the other England giant, Manchester United, but it cannot be compared at all to its next opponent, Liverpool, whose stadium capacity “Anfield” exceeds the population of Villa. riyals of 50 thousand people.
The "Reds" team is considered one of the greats of the old continent with its six titles in the Champions League, the last of which was in 2019, in addition to winning the European Cup/European League three times, the Continental Super Cup four times and the Club World Cup once.
At a time when the runner-up of the 2007-2008 season is considered the best result for Villarreal in the Spanish League, Liverpool topped the throne of the team that won the English Premier League title from 1990 to 2011, before Manchester United removed it from it by winning the nineteenth title in 2011 and the twentieth in 2013.
budget
Judging by the history, prestige and popularity of the two clubs, it is natural that the financial differences between them are enormous.
Last December, Villarreal approved a budget of 138.7 million euros for the current financial year.
Now, as soon as he reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, the "Yellow Submarine" team secured 57.67 million euros in bonuses from the Continental Confederation (UEFA) without counting television transmission revenues, i.e. more than a third of its budget.
The main sponsor, the ceramic company "Pamesa", pumps about 3.7 million euros annually into the club's budget, but all of this is not compared to the English club's accounts.
Liverpool have earned 550.4 million euros this season, according to Deloitte, the seventh-highest total among clubs in the old continent.
The difference is also significant in the two clubs’ salary bills:
Facilities
Even the stadiums of the two clubs are not of the same caliber.
The legendary Anfield stadium is twice the size of the Ceramica Stadium (54,000 seats versus 23,000).
The English club plans to expand the capacity to 61,000 seats.
During his first participation in the Champions League during the 2005-2006 season, when he reached the semi-finals for the first and last time before his career ended at the hands of another English team, Arsenal, the Spanish club was forced to modernize its stadium to comply with European Union standards.
And Villarreal's training center is the size of the club, while Liverpool decided in November 2020 to leave Melwood, where he had been training for 70 years, to move to completely new facilities in Kirkby, northeast of the city, in a move that cost him 56 million euros.
Investors
In October 2010, the ownership of Liverpool transferred to the American investor group "Fenway" (then called New England Sports Venture), for 340 million euros when the team was going through a very difficult period if it was in terms of results (the eighteenth in the Premier League at that period). or economically.
Among the main investors are John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, or current president Tom Werner.
Years later, NBA star LeBron James also bought shares in the club.
On the Villarreal side, neither stars nor celebrity owners.
The Spanish club has been owned for 24 years by the outrageously wealthy Roig family, who owns the Mercadona supermarket chain and Pamesa ceramics factories.
On May 15, 1997, Fernando Roig Alfonso agreed during a meeting in a bar to buy Villarreal, who was then in the second division, for 432,000 euros (72 million pesetas at the time), and he strove to lead him to be among the greats in Spain and Europe thanks to an ambitious project. It bore fruit after a quarter of a century.
In October 2021, Forbes estimated his fortune at $1.9 billion.
project
Despite having to live in the shadow of the two giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona, for geographical, economic and historical reasons, Villarreal entered a new dimension in 2020 with the arrival of coach Unai Emery, who took the club to the continental summit by leading him to his first title ever.
For Liverpool, the arrival of German coach Jurgen Klopp in 2015 was also a pivotal stage in the club's history, after giving it its first league title since 1990, but for the "Reds" club, winning the Champions League is not a dream, but rather a goal.
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