Capital gains in Serie A from player exchanges reached 200 million in one year. The exchanges in the transfer market have taken root more and more in Serie A. And the financial consequences for the clubs are not few
From the winter window of 2020 to the summer window of 2021, the evaluations of the players exchanged or included in the negotiations as a counterpart are around 200 million, a figure that is precisely the subject of “compensation” between two clubs with another player who at the same time changed his shirt.
In the investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office on Juventus’ capital gains, efforts are being made to shed light on various deals of this kind, conducted by the Juventus club with other clubs in Italy and abroad. And it is no coincidence that the FIGC led by President Gabriele Gravina aims to “sterilize” this type of operations except in the civil sphere (where ad hoc legislative interventions would be needed) at least considering the achievement of the capital parameters for registration in the championship (and in harmony with Uefa for obtaining licenses).
The Pjanic case or the examples of mirror transactions that emerge from the “Prisma” investigation relating to the Bianconeri mainly concern the Under 23 members in Serie C. But taking into consideration the transfers from January 2020 to today, the best-known case is that of Pjanic, who ended up in Barcelona in the exchange with Arthur, valued at 60 million plus five bonuses. Even before that, the bianconeri had included other players to reduce costs on the market. As in the case of Kulusevski, withdrawn from Atalanta for 35 million plus bonuses. In the same transfer campaign session, however, the young Muratore (valued 7 million) and the defender Romero went to the people of Bergamo, who reached a value of 20 million between loans, redemptions, and bonuses. There are also equal exchanges that generated capital gains on both sides, such as the Tongya-Aké operation with Marseille, in which the two unders were valued at 8 million each. Or the agreement with Parma for the transfers of Lanini to Juventus and Minelli to Emilia, with a valuation set at 2.9 million for both.
Other clubs have used the trading formula in a different way, mainly to ease the balances. Napoli did it for the Osimhen affair, passing the cards of four players to Lille: Karnezis, Liguori, Palmieri and Manzi, valued at a total of 20 million. From the balance sheet of Rome, however, Cetin, Cancellieri and Diaby were transferred to Verona in the context of the purchase of Kumbulla (valued at 28.5 million) for a value of 12.8 million.
Furthermore, there are several exchanges between young people who have not even set foot in Serie A: those of Parma (Brunori, Madonna and D’Aloia) and Pescara (Palmucci and Cipolletti), for example, who in January 2020 evaluated their «Packages» for over 4 million euros; or those of Parma and Lecce (1.6 million by both clubs for Cucci, Laraspata, Piazza and Trezza), always returning to Juventus, which took over Vrioni from Sampdoria in exchange for Francofonte, Gerbi and Stoppa (valued 4 million plus bonuses).
With the exponential increase in trade at high prices, a problem of medium-long term sustainability of the system is also created. If the cross-capital gains increase, in fact, depreciation also increases. It is a logical and accounting consequence. And that is exactly what is happening today. The sequence of the last five years is impressive. In the 2015/16 season the Serie A clubs realized capital gains of 376 million. After a year, there is an 85% increase in this type of revenue, to 693 million. In subsequent years the trend stabilizes (713, 712 and 738 million in the 2019/20 season) and capital gains become the second revenue item after TV rights. What happens to depreciation? In the 2015/16 season, Serie A had accumulated 518 million in costs related to amortization and write-downs of the players’ pool. In the following season it reaches 630 million, in the 2018/19 season (the last pre-pandemic) it reaches 871 million and in the 2019/20 season it reaches the peak of 1.087 million.
Naples Football City 