So Cazorla is going to Arsenal for around twenty million euros. Manuel Pellegini said the price is effectively letting him walk away but it needs to be done due to financial turmoil at the club. Can anyone tell me how they're in a dire financial position when their owners are in the mould of Abramovich/Sheik Mansoon??? Any players their we could realistically look at?
http://sportige.com/malaga-cf-08-2012-everyone-is-for-sale/ Everyone is for sale. Worrying, not just for Malaga but for football in general.
Make a brew lads, cos this will be a loooooooong post. So, the Arab's who own Malaga CF came to Marbella, fell in love with the place & decided to set up roots here. Welcomed by the mayor of Marbella, saved the football club that was already in mind boggling debt, and settled into the area. Away from the pitch, a brand new marina was planned, akin to the Palm in Dubai, the Arab owners had private backing for the majority of the funding, and were to receive some backing from the Spanish council, in respect of the 1,000 or s jobs anticipated, and of the ability to harbour cruise ships into Marbella, an absolutely enormous and undervalued income to a city for people who don't know, wealthy, free spending people, in short stints, kerching! All was rosey, €140 million was invested in the club, signing van Nistelrroy, Mathijsen, Buanonotte, Nach Monreal, Toulalan & the real eye-brow raiser, the man Santi Cazorla, rated by every man and his dog in Spain, a fantastic player. Money was pumped into the football in the community scheme, free Malaga shirts given to kids, Ruud & Santi coaching the kids in their time off their own backs, and the club was in the top 4, indeed, top for a couple of hours, for the first time in it's history. Anyway, the marina project showed the first signs of the cracks, delayed, delayed again, & again, & again... despite planning, design & funding all being supposedly in place. We all blamed the Spanish authorities, the red tape in this country is absolutely outrageous, when I got here, buying a car was the most traumatic experience, a ****ing car! Never mind registering for tax etc, queing outside a police station at 8am in the heat, then being sent away to go back in a few hours, then back in 3 days for an NIE number, then the same for a social security number, this is for an EU citizen with British documents, times this trauma by 8 or so for a non-EU person, no matter of their wealth. January came, Malaga were clearly in need of a striker, and at risk of missing CL qualification, no striker was bought, no effort was even made, but again, nobody panicked, after all the Arab's are multi-billionaires, and had already shown their hand. February brought another delay with the marina (to September, now delayed to MARCH 2013), and people did start to question what was happening. People close to the owners suggested they had 'fallen out of love' with the country, due to red tape and beauracratic issues, nobody really took notice, the season concluded, Malaga got CL spot, led on buy Santi, the lad is ****ing phenomenal, you'll all see next season, now we're all set, surely?? Well, no, actually. The Arab's mentioned, rightly, their concern about the percentage of TV money received by Real & Barca (even Marca website has it's own ****ing section just for these 2!), something like 90% of the income goes to them, and the Arab's asked 'how can we balance books/compete on this playing field'. You can't, unless it's bankroll, but you can't just bankroll, as the Spanish authorities make it rather difficult to spend your money here. Next thing to come, the 'big 5' players as listed above hadn't been paid bonuses promised for CL qualification. No biggy? Oversight?? Maybe, until it emerges the lesser names on moderate wages haven't been paid for 2 months. Cue mild panic. Last Weds Marca announced that the club was for sale, and a deal with the mega-rich Taci Oil 99% done, the Arabs haven't been seen in Spain for some 5-6months, but they flew their 'troubleshooter' into Malaga to settle things, and allegedly conclude the deal, and settle debts to the taxman and Spanish FA that would see Malaga relegated 3 divisions, and kicked out of the CL, by 31st July. Taci was photoed in Puerto Banus with the 'troubleshooter' and all seemed fine, until 24 hours later when it was confirmed it was an 'oil related' meeting, and Taci had 'no interest' in buying Malaga CF. The 31st has passed, the debts remain unpaid, and as such we don't know what happens with Malaga CF's status, the Cazorla sale will pay the debts, but more sales will be needed to cover a massively inflated wage bill (Nacho Monreal is a fantastic LWB, Rondon a real physical presence up front, and Toulalan an excellent DM, by the way MON ). Yesterday, it was announced, unofficially at least that Manuel Pellegrini will leave, as the club can no longer pay his wage, seemingly, he is happy to go as he knows the team is to be torn apart. It's a real ****ing mess, and that's where we sit right now, safe to assume that the Spanish FA have given a stay of execution on the promise of the Santi money, which in turn delayed his signing for Arsenal (scheduled for Monday gone), as Arsenal were initially unwilling to 'pay up front' (this RARELY happens). That's were it's at, completely ****ED!
How has it not been more widely reported? No chance of a quick fix? Will the owners face sanctions for this?
Not comparing this to any English football club but just goes to show how quickly it can all turn to sh!t. Thankfully we appear to be in good hands. Its only the supporters that suffer.
Was a wee bit out of the blue, all the warning signs I mentioned were dismissed as 'they are multi-billionaires'. No sanctions, no fit and proper test (they'd have passed it anyway..) just a case of Spain shooting itself in the foot, basically. It happens a LOT. You know mate, if you have staff here, you are CHARGED for having staff, so nobody declares their staff, and the government gets nada. Jobs with contracts are like gold dust, even on the coast, and yep, most of these jobs are with ENGLISH or Scandinavian companies. They just don't help themselves sort their ****.
Reminds me of Notts County, apart from the fact these actually had the money and spent it, and Notts County couldnt really go any further down when the **** hit the fan with them.
Few links.... http://www.marca.com/2012/08/02/en/football/spanish_football/1343923622.html http://www.marca.com/2012/08/02/en/football/spanish_football/1343922579.html http://www.marca.com/2012/08/02/en/...4e4b9fcd2d72c7aa3ff2d69c3f146a66&t=1344009021
As MON says - the Spanish are not helping themselves at all. I didn't realise their bureaucracy was still that bad - I've had my own frustrations living in CZ but that sounds minimal in comparison. This deal has FA to do with footie but peefart around on a deal with the gulf crew and this is what happens......they'll find another Marina if needs be but they own a lot of property round there so sounds a bit more like hardballing...
