Chapter 2 Our Goals
The Chinese Football Association did not call again, maybe they were just trying their luck at the beginning. Maybe Chang Sheng's brain had a twitch, and he agreed without turning around for a while, and they would make money.
But unfortunately, Chang Sheng's mind is very clear.
Or maybe it was Chang Sheng's last sentence that scared them.
A head coach who does not allow the Football Association to intervene in management and is fully responsible... In the history of the Chinese Football Association, such a head coach is not tossing the world?
If a head coach with no taste like Chang Sheng does not tighten the rein, I am afraid that the Football Association will be unlucky in the end and become very passive. At that time, political achievements will turn into shackles that can kill them...
No matter what the reason was, Chang Sheng and Avril Lavigne did not receive another call from the Chinese Football Association until the end of their vacation.
After the holiday, Chang Sheng returned to Rome.
In the summer of 2008, there were two major events in the world sports world, one was the Olympic Games, and the other was the European Cup.
Chang Sheng did not go to the scene to watch the European Cup like other coaches.
Instead, return to the club to deal with player transfers.
During his vacation with Avril Lavigne, there were often various rumors about the transfer of Lazio players in the media.
If you only look at the media reports, people will think that there are not many people left in Lazio...
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On the first day Chang Sheng returned to the club, he gathered all the staff in charge of the football competition department.
Gave them a very brief meeting.
Really very brief.
That's five minutes total.
In these five minutes, Chang Sheng told them that their work and mission goals this summer are very simple. It is to solve all the remaining debts of 100 million euros this summer!
A group of people are dumbfounded...
What rhythm is this?
Can selling players sell so much money?
Is Changsheng really going to dismantle this championship team and sell them all?
Lazio ignored their surprised eyes.
Announce the adjournment. The club's transfer department has officially started working.
Under the leadership of Chang Sheng, they are the first department to end the holiday every year.
Lazio's revival is inseparable from their hard work.
In fact, Chang Sheng has no choice but to rush to pay off the debt in one year. Because if the debt is not paid off, there will be no way to greatly increase the standard of the salary cap, which is not conducive to attracting more capable and famous stars to join the team and enhance the strength of the team.
In the time and space he knew well, Lazio did raise their salary without paying off their debts. But the salary increase is really small and pathetic.
The maximum salary of 2 million euros has become 2.1 million euros... Is this any different from not mentioning it?
The reason is that Lazio is still in debt, and Lotito dare not let go.
You must know that a salary increase is a very serious matter for all Italian clubs.
Because the tax rate in Italy is very high.
Here we want to focus on the Italian tax system and the necessary expenditures for the players' wages.
The first is insurance. There is an institution in Italy, the full name is "National Protection and Relief Center for Professional Sports and Entertainment Workers". According to the constitution, all the above-mentioned workers (including actors, directors, singers, and various athletes) must have part of their monthly income handed over to this institution, which is essentially similar to China's social security. It is stipulated that 33% of the personal monthly income should be handed over to the company, of which the players themselves should pay 9.19%, and the unit where the player is located is 23.81% paid by the club. But this payment is capped. The upper limit is 86,669 euros. Many Serie A players, especially big-name stars, must have a monthly income of more than 80,000 euros, and they have to pay 9.19% of 86,669 euros, which is more than 8,000 euros. The club pays 23.81 percent of the 86,669 euros, or 20,635 euros.
Let's say a team has twenty-five first-team players, just first-team players. The club will spend about 510,000 euros per month on this. One year is 6.19 million euros. This is not a small sum.
The debt that the Lazio club needs to repay in a year is only 5.5 million euros.
In addition, this insurance also has a "treatment after the termination of the working relationship", which means that the retirement pension of the players after retirement is also calculated according to the above-mentioned highest standard, the ratio is 7.5%, which is about 7,000 euros. But this part is paid by the players themselves. Let's not talk about it.
After insurance is over, it is tax. Italy currently has three types of taxes, namely 8%, 20%, and 40%.
It is divided according to the level of income and the nature of the goods. Such as buying water, basic food and other daily necessities. There is an 8% tax, which is included in the price of the item. Twenty percent is for high-end items, and forty percent for more high-end items. The income of laborers also follows this level. For those with low income, 20% for those with a few thousand euros a month, and 40% for those with high income.
Italy has a relatively high tax rate among several European football powers, second only to France, but it is also limited...much higher than Spain, England, and Germany. High tax rates have a lot to do with the decline of Serie A in recent years. In the era of the Little World Cup, Italy would not have imposed such high taxes on players.
Let's use the example of a player's salary as a substitute in a big club.
His monthly after-tax salary is 300,000 euros, and his annual income is 3.6 million. His monthly pre-tax income is at least about 550,000 euros, and after tax is 200 million euros. For such insurance, more than 240,000 yuan, which is almost 45% of the income, was lost.
In fact, the Italian player's tax is about 43%, in addition to the 5% special tax that the club must pay, the total tax rate is 48%, which is almost equivalent to 50%. .
This money is paid by the club, because the players and the club are talking about the annual salary after tax. The players don't care what the tax is. They only look at how much money they can get in the end.
For example, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's contract renewal with Inter Milan requires an annual salary of 12 million euros. This is after tax.
In addition to giving Ibrahimovic this money, the Inter Milan club has to pay an additional tax of more than 10 million euros.
Equal to one Ibrahimovic will cost Inter Milan more than 23 million euros in annual wages.
That's why Lazio has a salary cap system, and they also know that doing so will reduce their attractiveness to those stars.
But if you don't do this, Lazio may go out of business tomorrow.
More stars are useless.
That's it. In Lazio's annual budget, wages are a large part, which puts a lot of pressure on the club.
Therefore, Lazio dare not raise wages easily.
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Lazio's current income mainly comes from league TV broadcast fees, transfer fee income from selling players, bonuses for participating in the UEFA Champions League and the share of UEFA Champions League TV broadcast fees.
The Serie A championship bonus is a small head. can be directly ignored.
Because the prize money for the Serie A championship is... one million euros!
Yes, I wrote it right, and you read it right, in Serie A, one of the four major leagues in Europe, the championship bonus is a mere one million euros!
In stark contrast, the Premier League champion bonus is 40 million euros, the La Liga champion bonus is 15 million euros, and the Ligue 1 champion bonus is 16 million euros. Even the Bundesliga, which has always emphasized healthy finances and thrifty housekeeping. The championship bonus also has three million to seven million euros.
Compared with other leagues, the Italian league is like a short, poor and ugly dick.
So this million euros can be ignored directly.
Another small head is ticket revenue.
As for why the ticket revenue is small, let me tell you...
Lazio's home stadium is the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
This stadium can accommodate 100,000 people, but most of the time this stadium is not full.
With the improvement of Lazio's performance in these two seasons, the attendance rate has increased, with an average of 45,000 people.
In the first season of Chang Sheng's coaching, the average attendance rate was only 35,000 people.
Ticket prices for Lazio's home games range from twenty euros to several hundred euros. However, a few hundred euros is a particularly good location, and there are very few such tickets. So the average ticket price is 30 euros.
In the first season, Lazio's ticket revenue for each home game was 1.05 million euros, and there were 19 home games in a season. That's 19.95 million euros in ticket sales.
The average attendance for the last two seasons was 45,000 people for 38 home games. Ticket revenue totaled 51.3 million.
The three seasons add up to 71.25 million euros.
Sounds like a lot right? The debt of the Lazio club can be repaid by ticket sales alone, right?
too young too simple.
Because, all the home courts of Serie A clubs including Lazio are not their own!
And belong to the local municipal government!
The ticket income is not owned by the club, but by the city government, and then according to the contract signed by both parties, the money is distributed in proportion.
But the big head must belong to the city government.
There is a data comparison, the ticket revenue of Premier League clubs accounts for 38% of their total revenue, while the proportion of Italian clubs is only 11%. Excluding the fact that the attendance rate of Serie A is lower than that of the Premier League, this proportion cannot be justified.
In addition to the ticket revenue being taken by the city government, the club also has to pay the stadium rent, and the maintenance and security costs of the stadium are also paid by the club.
In addition, the municipal government has the final say on the management of billboards in the stadium, so Italian teams can get very little income in this regard.
In terms of ticket revenue, although Lazio earned more than 71 million euros in three years, in fact, they may not even get half of it, which is about 35 million euros.
This is the sum of the three seasons, an average of more than 11 million per season.
It is pitifully small.
But it is not surprising that Inter Milan, which has the highest ticket revenue in Italy, had ticket revenue of only 39 million euros in the season when they won the Triple Crown in 2009-2010, which is already the highest in Italy.
But compared with other giants in Europe, this number is really pitifully small. The best references are Manchester United and Arsenal. The two clubs earn 126 million euros and 108 million euros in match day revenue respectively, and the stadium capacity of these two clubs is higher than that of international football clubs. Milan small.
It is precisely because most of the ticket revenue is given to the government that many Italian clubs have plans to build new stadiums, because only when the stadium is completely owned by them can the ticket revenue truly become the main source of club income. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (m) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)