Between the appreciation of footballers’ passes and UEFA’s revenue, the coach was responsible for the entry of almost 900 million euros into SAD’s coffers. The bad news is that Sérgio Conceição’s contract is ending and the wear and tear on those responsible at FC Porto SAD is increasing.
“It’s not enough to have a contract, you need to feel the club. Having a contract is not important.” Sérgio Conceição’s statement at the last press conference did not clarify whether he will renew his contract with FC Porto and in the interview that Pinto da Costa gave to SIC in November, the historic president of the “dragons” left the question in view of the pre-election moment that the club is: “Is someone going to renew without knowing who will be running it? I didn’t sign it, he doesn’t know.” The ballot takes place in April and has three candidates: Nuno Lobo, André Villas-Boas and, as confirmed this weekend, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa.
At FC Porto since 2017, Sérgio Conceição returned the club to titles after four seasons of fasting (the longest period without trophies in the Pinto da Costa era) and despite low investment in the football team, he was champion on three occasions (2018, 2020 and 2022), won three Portuguese Cups (2020, 2022 and 2023), one League Cup and three Super Cups. Equally or more important: the Portuguese coach has already qualified FC Porto for the knockout phase of the Champions League five times and fell in the eighth at the feet of Liverpool (2018) and Inter Milan (2023) and in the quarters due to the Liverpool (2019) and Chelsea (2021). In this edition, FC Porto was the only Portuguese team to qualify in the group stage of the Champions League and will have Arsenal as their opponent.
And why is it so important to talk about the Champions League and Sérgio Conceição in this context? In December last year, FC Porto qualified for the 14th in its history for the round of 16 of the UEFA million-dollar competition and of these fourteen qualifications, Sérgio Conceição was responsible for five. Furthermore, the coach is the first coach to reach the “Champions” quarter-finals twice with a Portuguese team.
Despite the recognized success at the helm of FC Porto, the relationship between Sérgio Conceição and some SAD officials and even the “Super Dragões” fan base (which last week suffered a severe setback with the Judiciary Police operation to arrest Fernando Madureira) has been anything but peaceful. It is public that the coach has been managing some of SAD’s positions regarding sales policy with some wear and tear and even discomfort: the most recent was the sale of Otávio to Al Nassr, an operation that, in the coach’s opinion, compromised the sporting objectives. last season.
“It’s FC Porto’s biggest asset”
Jorge Faria de Sousa, commentator on the program “Jogo Económico”, on the multimedia platform JE TV, even considers that Sérgio Conceição “is FC Porto’s greatest asset” as “he has been absolutely decisive in the sporting success of his team”. The analyst reminds JE that “the coach lived with UEFA intervention, due to non-compliance with financial fair play and yet, he has won trophies”.
In this commentator’s opinion, “Conceição throughout its career has had inferior squads to its rivals, with several players leaving for free and a drop in investment in the team”.
And what consequences could the coach leaving FC Porto have, as could happen at the end of this season? “A possible departure of Sérgio Conceição from technical command will be very difficult sportingly for the undefeated club. In addition to the financial problems that the Porto emblem is experiencing, having to start a new sporting project, with a new technical team, will be unknown”.
Millions in cash
And because victories and qualifications in the Champions League rhyme with millions in cash, Sérgio Conceição has already guaranteed FC Porto’s SAD since 2017, with revenues from UEFA alone, a sum close to 350 million euros (347 million euros to be more precise), with the 2018/19 season being the most profitable ever in the club’s history in European competitions: 80.7 million euros. This season alone, despite only completing the group stage, the “dragons” have already secured the third highest revenue ever in the competition (63 million euros), with the second being achieved in 2020/21: 73.7 million euros. euros.
If we quantify the weight of Sérgio Conceição in the appreciation of FC Porto’s assets (the footballers’ passes), it is possible to see through data from the “Transfermarkt” website that the Portuguese coach has never spent more on signings than the value of sales since he was in command of the dragons. Since 2017, FC Porto has spent 280 million on signings (113.9 million euros on 24 players signed to Portuguese clubs, according to the “Transfer Diary” page) and made sales worth 533 million euros. Furthermore, revenue from player passes has always exceeded 68 million euros (the lowest value was reached this season) and Sérgio Conceição’s most expensive season at FC Porto was also the most profitable in terms of sales: in 2019/20, the “blue and whites” purchased a value of 63.3 million and raised 88 million euros.
FC Porto SAD in “serious situation”
The financial difficulties of FC Porto’s SAD have been public, but the latest analysis (from October last year) of last season’s accounts of the three “big ones”, by Maxyield – Clube dos Pequenos Acionistas, to which JE had access, demonstrates that the SAD of the “dragons” is sinking in the financial championship of the biggest emblems of national football.
“All SADs manifest liquidity difficulties, presenting negative working funds, although quite differentiated, conditions of treasury management and satisfaction of their commitments, with the situation of Porto SAD being particularly serious”, according to the study to which JE had access .
“The liquidity obtained from athlete transactions has been decisive in avoiding treasury shortages. Furthermore, Porto SAD and Sporting SAD have a low level of equity, resulting in a loss of half of their capital”, it can be read.
It should be noted that in the report and accounts presented to the CMVM at the end of October and referring to the previous season, SAD presented a loss of 47.6 million euros with negative equity of 175.9 million euros.
Furthermore, if UEFA’s new financial regulation came into force at the end of this season as it will be established (without the transition period), FC Porto would be very close to breaching the rule. Currently, a third of the teams competing in the current edition of the biggest European club competition would be excluded in accordance with the established standard that replaces financial fair-play. This is what this new regulation says: in 2025/26, sports companies, which manage club football, cannot spend more than 70% of revenue on wages, transfers and commissions to businesspeople.
2024-02-06 00:00:00
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