The remarkable construction to guide the Ghanaian Ernest Nuamah to Lyon via RWDM has alarmed many observers. But will the transfer of the attacker have a tail for RWDM? Sports economist Thomas Peeters, affiliated with Erasmus University Rotterdam, does not think things will go that fast. “To the regret of those who envy it, this will probably just pass,” Peeters tells Sporza.
25 million euros. That’s how much RWDM put on the table for Nuamah earlier this week. The Ghanaian was then promptly transferred to Olympique Lyon, the French top club that, like RWDM, is owned by American John Textor.
The fact that PhD student RWDM, of all people, sharpens the Belgian transfer record, raised quite a few eyebrows. “But it is not a unique construction. Something like this has happened quite a bit,” says Thomas Peeters.
“And it also proves once again that a structure in which different clubs have the same owner allows you to bend the transfer rules and the rules of Financial Fair Play (FFP) to your will.”
FFP imposes a number of criteria and indirectly this creates an entire industry of creative accountants who help clubs to get out of it.
Thomas Peeters
“If you as a club just generate enough revenue to pay your costs, then you obviously don’t need such constructions”, Peeters smiles. “To bend the rules, it helps to have such a structure again.”
“FFP imposes a number of criteria and indirectly that creates an entire industry of creative bookkeepers, who help clubs to get out of that. And with every check or new rule they become even more creative.”
“You can’t keep adding rules. It would be easier to ban multi-club ownership, but that’s not that simple from a legal point of view.”
“25 million euros is not a realistic amount for RWDM”
So creative accounting. But how does a club like RWDM write that 25 million euros in the books? “In itself, 25 million is not a realistic amount for a club like RWDM to lose in the annual accounts within a normal budget”, Thomas Peeters also knows.
“But that 25 million does not immediately appear in its entirety in the annual accounts. However, a percentage that corresponds to the contract term of that player is included in the accounts every year.”
“Suppose he has a contract of 5 years, then the 25 million euros will also be spread over that period. Then it is possible, for example, that Lyon pays annual rent to RWDM and thus finances the cost of 5 million euros per year. And then the RWDM does not immediately hurt much.”
Because Lyon and RWDM have the same owner, the risk is actually very limited, because they sell to themselves.
Thomas Peeters
RWDM does of course have a debt on the balance sheet. “That’s right and that amount will also have to be taken into account in the future. But the gamble is that that future will never be there and that player will be sold again, either to Lyon or to another club.”
“Because Lyon and RWDM have the same owner, the risk is actually very limited, because they sell to themselves. It’s one of many creative ways to deal with FFP.”
“How do you solve this? You can’t put RWDM on a different scale than Antwerp or Anderlecht, for example, where the owners have made even bigger capital increases in recent years. I don’t think there will be a problem for RWDM in the short term. whoever envies it, I think this may just pass.”
2023-09-02 08:09:19
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