Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Lemar, qu’on voit danser le long des… French football 2018-19

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Lemar, qu’on voit danser le long des… French football 2018-19

    The new Grenoble Foot 38 manager (GF38, second tier), Metz legend Philippe Hinschberger, playing the guitar and singing the made-up song "Au GF 38" for his soft bizutage (initiation) ceremony (it’s a cover of the Joe Dassin hit "Aux Champs-Élysées" with the lyrics adapted to Grenoble Foot 38). Pretty impressive stuff!

    https://twitter.com/GF38_Officiel/status/1014597429906300930

    #2
    Lemar is going to find dancing in the Guadalquivir to be challenging at certain times of year.

    Comment


      #3
      First round of fixtures in Ligue 2 last night. The results: https://www.francefootball.fr/ligue-2/resultats/

      ORLÉANS-LENS 0-2
      GRENOBLE-SOCHAUX 1-0
      AC AJACCIO-TROYES 0-1
      CLERMONT-CHÂTEAUROUX 0-0
      RED STAR-NIORT 1-2
      GFC AJACCIO-PARIS FC 1-1
      VALENCIENNES-AUXERRE 3-1
      NANCY-BÉZIERS 0-2

      2 more tonight and tomorrow, Lorient-Le Havre and Brest-Metz.

      A quick focus on the sad case of Sochaux, relegated from Ligue 1 in 2014, a club that's racked up 66 seasons in the top flight (only OM has more, 68) with 8 European campaigns under its belt (C3 semi-final in 1981, knocked out 4-3 over 2 legs by AZ Alkmaar, who Ispwich beat 5-4 over the two-legged final) and in a sorry state since club founder Peugeot (1928) cut off all links with Sochaux in May 2014 (debts).

      Given the parlous financial situation of the Lionceaux , 6 months ago the DNCG threatened to place the club in administration and relegate it to National 3, D5 – as it did with RC Strasbourg in 2011, ex top flight CS Sedan Ardennes, Le Mans FC (to D6, after having a brand new 25,000 capacity stadium, €100 million, now mostly used for concerts and the local American football team, Le Mans FC play there as well in front of 3,000 people – just been promoted to National, D3) and a few other lower profile clubs (Grenoble, Gueugnon etc.) The same shit has been hanging over RC Lens's head too for a few seasons but the Sang et Or seem to be perking up and could be a contender for the montée, promotion to Ligue 1 along with the favourites Metz, Troyes, Le Havre etc.

      Not sure Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard, 10th last year, should still be called that seeing as how the franc-comtois club has been taken over by the Chinese and Spanish of Baskonia-Alavés Group – The Vitoria-based group will be responsible for comprehensively managing this club over the coming years, as part of a cooperation agreement to combine each side’s respective strengths – it has in effect become a satellite club of Deportivo Alavés.

      Baskonia-Alavés are consolidating the debt and have sold about 15 players in the close season (financial reasons), they have stated their intention to take over (Chinese owner up shit creek financially, from the word go in 2015). Baskonia-Alavés are running another 2 clubs in Europe, Alavés obviously but also in Croatia and Finland.

      The core of the squad is mostly made up of Spaniards and loanees connected to Alavés, no idea what they’re worth but they were cheap, they had to be as Alavés is slowly clearing Sochaux’s debts and had little money to put into the squad. The manager is Spanish, as are most of the staff.

      We shall see but I fear for this historic club (the first professional football team in France), especially after it turned out that the "wealthy" Chinese owner who bought the club in 2015 can’t even sustain a second-tier French club like Sochaux (if those Spaniards had money there would be reasons to be optimistic but clearing out half of the squad to replace them with cheapos doesn’t inspire me with confidence. Are the Spaniards mostly interested in Sochaux’s famed academy to farm them out to their other clubs?).

      That said, (Saski) Baskonia rescued Deportivo Alavés from near oblivion in 2011 (3rd tier and huge debts), and took them from the third tier to the top flight where they finished 14th this season just gone, with a comfy 18 points more than the first relegated team, Deportivo La Coruña. They also own Club Deportivo Saski-Baskonia, a top European basket-ball club. Clearly, they’re not novices but we’ll see how seriously they take this new challenge.

      It all feels a bit amateurish from the Spanish at the minute, the players only got their kit hours before the game at Stade des Alpes vs Grenoble, it was so last minute that they didn’t have enough time to floquer (print) the player’s names and the sponsors on their change shirts (photo below, in fact their official change shirt is grey and they used a red shirt, so they clearly hadn’t got any official change kit, or maybe this red jersey is their third but no third listed on their website, none that I could see anyway after a cursory glance). The match report is more promising, there are clearly some talented players in there, good possession last night (75%) etc. – finishing could be a problem… – but a lot of foreign players and loanees who have never experienced French football never mind Ligue 2, so they hardly know each other, they’ll need a bit of time to gel.

      Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 28-07-2018, 15:43.

      Comment


        #4
        In other unrelated Ligue 2 news, a big bravo to Benjamin Nivet (Troyes), still going strong at nearly 42. The midfielder turned pro in 1995 at Auxerre (U-18 French international), under the firm but fair stewardship of Guy Roux, but only played his first professional game in 1997 (13 seasons in D1). Nivet saved Troyes from relegation in the play-offs in 2017 (winning goal in stoppage time vs Lorient). Last season, at Ligue 1 Troyes: 25 league matches, 2 goals, 2 assists. He was the guest of the Canal+ Canal Football Club programme 6 months ago, he’s a whisker away from reaching 700 pro games (699 – 123 goals):

        Comment


          #5
          Girondins de Bordeaux have been sold to the US private equity firm General American Capital Partners for 100 million euro.

          Comment


            #6
            The Metz management truly and royally screwed up last year, first selling their best players and then not using the cash to strengthen the squad

            Hirschberger was duly fired after a disaster strewn string of results and was replaced by Frederic Hantz who managed to generate a surge of points but lost momentum and fell out with the board when they failed to back him in a confrontation with a player

            Relegation to D2 naturally followed ...

            Bad management at the top and the team manager pays the price

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by loose cannon View Post
              The Metz management truly and royally screwed up last year, first selling their best players and then not using the cash to strengthen the squad

              Hirschberger was duly fired after a disaster strewn string of results and was replaced by Frederic Hantz who managed to generate a surge of points but lost momentum and fell out with the board when they failed to back him in a confrontation with a player

              Relegation to D2 naturally followed ...

              Bad management at the top and the team manager pays the price
              Yes but Hinschberger is a mean guitar player-singer, that's got to be worth a lot in any dressing room or around bonfires during a summer camp training week.

              https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...=1#post1456359

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                Girondins de Bordeaux have been sold to the US private equity firm General American Capital Partners for 100 million euro.
                About €70m according to the French media tonight, which is the minimum amount that Nicolas de Tavernost (the M6 TV group CEO and Bordeaux’s sole shareholder) has been asking since the negotiations started in February.

                https://twitter.com/Girondins4ever/status/1023123478281678848

                http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/foot-...2239739_28.php

                GACP (who are they exactly? They indirectly belong to Bryant Riley if I understand correctly, they seem to be pretty discreet) are planning to take the current budget (€65m) to close to €100, by investing ~€80m over 3 seasons.

                Might not be enough to be "a top team" regularly aiming for the Champions’ League (Lyon’s budget last season: €240m, Monaco's: €180m), especially as the TV rights will be hugely increased from 2020, ~€1.1bn a year (the new 2020-2024 TV rights for Ligue 1, negotiated 3 months ago, have gone up by 60%: Ligue 1 will now net over €1bn a year). That said, Nice qualified for the CL in 2017 with a budget of only €42m but obvs. a one-off.

                I don’t quite understand the rationale behind this purchase from this particular type of business (GACP, a hedge fund), unless the bosses fancy regular grand cru-tasting jollies to the châteaux’s chais. Or is it just another (small) asset acquisition for that hedge fund, another feather in their cap?

                They’re arriving in the nick of time mind, Bordeaux have finally managed to hawk off the Brazilian winger Malcolm to Barça for €41m a few days ago (they bought him for about €8m 2 yrs ago, not quite sure why his stock has risen so much, he's good, quick, scores spectacular goals etc. but hasn’t picked up a Brazil cap since he’s at Bordeaux which could have explained the increase). However, they better hurry up recruiting decent players because their squad looks a bit weak and threadbare to aim for a top three finish. With Malcolm's money, they should be in a position to do just that.

                Comment


                  #9
                  L'Equipe says 100 million

                  I never heard of GACP before this operation, but they seem to be one of what a probably hundred or more similar private equity shops (as opposed to hedge funds, their business model is to invest in companies they believe are undervalued in the expectation that they will be able to sell their stakes for a multiple of what they paid within a few years, rather than focusing on active trading. They also provide "non-bank" financing). This looks the first sports/entertainment investment in their portfolio.

                  They have about USD 750 million to throw around, so this is actually a pretty big deal for them, unless it turns out that they are financing much of the reported purchase price (which is quite possible).

                  Comment


                    #10
                    OK, €100 smackers it is then. It was €70m, then it became €100m a few hours later. It has apparently something to do with the late inclusion of Malcom – cf my previous post, sold this week to Barça for €41m – in the sale (price), which will only be finalised at the beginning of October.

                    On paper, it sounds like a decent bit of business for Bordeaux (that’s double what the Qataris paid for PSG and McCourt for l’OM) from hopefully serious investors, unlike in Lille, Lens, Sochaux etc. in recent years. But it is very early days, we need to know what strategy these new owners will want to pursue and we won’t know that for a while as the sale will only be finalised in 2 months’ time according to Europe1 Sports. The current owner, TV group M6, will handle the summer transfers. I don’t know for certain but I get the impression that M6 has treated Bordeaux more as an advertising vehicle (à la Ashley with the Mags, SD) than as a football club since they bought the club in 1999, particularly post 2009 (last league title). M6 cleared a few debts and substantially improved the Haillan training ground & academy but seemed to be resting on their laurels afterwards and be happy topping the mid-table mediocrity league most seasons.

                    It’d be great to have more competition in Ligue 1, so I do hope these US investors mean business. I just hope that they're not expecting to get anything out of it financially, there isn’t much money to make in French football, and football in general (particularly in poorly-managed clubs – eg Aston Villa), and even less so at Bordeaux I'd say (no profit made since 2011). For 1 good return on a player (such as this Brazilian Malcom, bought for ~€8m two years ago and sold this week to Barça for €41m) there are 5 duff ones that will lose you money. And, as the new (2016) American-Chinese owners of OGCNice have found out, getting into the CL is no cinch, what with PSG automatically being granted 1 strapontin every year, there are only 2 spots to fight for. This is a seriously ruthless business.

                    Yet again, Bordeaux finished 6th this year (decent result - 7th budget in Ligue 1), but 23 points behind a CL place. Last year: 19 pts behind. They will have to invest a lot of time and money to succeed, and crucially get the right people to run the club, as well as capitalise on the Haillan academy if they want to produce good homegrown players to then sell on at a good price. Or keep them. That's the perennial quandary...

                    According to L’Équipe TV, Philip Anschutz is part of the project. That could be good news for the Girondins in terms of credibility and financial clout (he owns 45% of Hammarby in Stockholm – so I guess they’ll see a few Swedes strutting their stuff at the Matmut Atlantique Stadium in years to come. Not sure what impact he's had there, would be interesting to have info on that).

                    But if they’re really only going to bring in €25m-€30m a year as DeGrosa has stated (and rely on 1 marquee signing per season, the academy, cheapos and loanees?), it might be good enough to qualify for the EL but not the CL, which is their priority. They’ll have to inject far more wonga than that and offer much more attractive salaries for starters (their average is €70K/month, with their max. at €150K, about half of what their main competitors offer – OM, Monaco, Lyon; I obviously exclude PSG from the list, they’re not competitors as such, they’re hors catégorie). Unless they’re hoping to do a Leicester or Nice every season thanks to their Swedish loanees.

                    Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 29-07-2018, 19:10.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      That’s somewhat interesting accounting. If GACP were willing to pay 70 for the club with Malcom, one would think hat they should have paid more than a 100 for the club without him, but with a 41 million euro receivable from Barca (or, more accurately at least 10 million in cash and the rest owed over no more than three seasons).

                      According to l’Equipe, the local council has to approve the sale because of their contributions to the public/private partnership that built the new ground and currently holds the concession. Unsurprisingly, the council won’t meet before September.

                      Anschutz is much wealthier than DeGrosa (he’s also almost 80). If he was going to put real money into the club, I would have expected him to do it directly. I wonder if Anschutz’ primary interest is in making more money from the ground, which has been a big element of many of his sporting investments.

                      It will be interesting to see what happens. Like you, I think they are going to be very disappointed if they expect to make money on this in the short to medium term.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I know but it might be a question of timing, it might hinge on how the Malcom sale was done exactly, and on what terms, what's included etc. as Malcom is a very valuable asset (no kidding, he's worth half the club’s valuation!), ie did the Friday sale include Malcom or not? When will M6 get the money for him exactly? (maybe GACP or M6 are hedging their bets on this, not receiving the money but the exact modalités, the payment terms). When exactly will GACP pay up? Quite a few variables here that may explain the serious price fluctuations within a few hours. I don’t know, it’s all a bit strange.

                        I find it very strange for instance that we're told the price sale has been agreed on €100m, but that the club doesn’t quite belong to GACP yet and that M6 will handle the crucial transfer market.
                        What if M6 spends far more than they receive? (or vice-versa). Surely, that would affect the value of the club come October when we are told GACP will take delivery of it. It could mean that the club, whose value is significantly determined by its playing assets (eg Malcom, and a few others), is actually worth as little as €60m, or as much as €120m, come September. Either you conclude a sale and agree a fixed price before or after the transfer window, but surely not in the middle. It's a bit like selling your second-hand car and agreeing a price with the buyer while it's going on its MOT and hearing from the garage that the suspension may need replacing. This halfway house position with key assets, such as Malcom, being offloaded while ownership changes hand doesn’t seem to make much financial sense. I think this €100m price may fluctuate here, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear another final price come the end of the mercato.

                        There seems to be a few grey areas in this dossier (this stadium rent business with the mairie seems very interesting indeed, Vente des Girondins de Bordeaux : la Métropole dément toute négociation sur le loyer), and without a subscription to L’Équipe.fr, or to the local paper sudouest.fr, difficult to know what the hell is going on there (and I’m not prepared to scour fans’ forums and French football radio progs to find out. I have little affinity with Girondins de Bordeaux anyway – and I much prefer Australian wine and "gros rouge qui tache". And I can’t stand wine snobs, so fuck Saint-Émilion buffs and Robert M Parker Jr).

                        It doesn’t seem very straightforward and now I hear that the 100m might be split into two: one bit for Bordeaux and the other for M6. In which proportion? no idea but this might explain the discrepancy between the 2 figures. No wonder they need another 2 months to finalise the sale. We haven’t been told everything...

                        It might, or might not be, explained in more detail in the local paper, Sud Ouest, but it’s paywalled. https://www.sudouest.fr/2018/07/29/q...-5270631-8.php

                        Comment


                          #13
                          There will be provisions in the contract that expressly cover all of those possibilities and provide for “purchase price adjustments” in the event agreed limits are exceeded.

                          I believe that la Liga (and perhaps UEFA) no longer allow for transfer payments to be spread over more than three years, thus the assumptions above.

                          That said, I’m wondering if the fact that they knew that the required council approval wouldn’t be available for 60 day’s led them to be less than punctilious with the paperwork before making the announcement. That definitely happens.

                          The French Wiki article goes into some detail on the stadium deal without making things clear at all.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Thanks. Looks like the sale price can change depending on the business done during the transfer market window which is what I suspected in my post#12 and what you confirm:

                            https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/football/...e-1496599.html

                            Si les dépenses sur le marché de transferts sont supérieures aux ventes, GACP s’est engagé à rembourser M6.

                            La vente des Girondins de Bordeaux n’est pas encore actée mais le groupe M6, actionnaire majoritaire, est en négociation exclusive très avancée avec le fonds d’investissement américain GACP. Quel sera le fonctionnement jusqu’en octobre, quand le pensionnaire de Ligue 1 changera vraiment de mains?

                            Il ne reste plus que quelques détails pour finaliser l’opération avant que GACP ne devienne actionnaire majoritaire définitif des Girondins de Bordeaux, à la fin du mois de septembre ou début octobre. D’ici là, le club va devoir se préparer à la transition. Le fonds d’investissement américain a bien réuni toutes les garanties financières pour acheter le club, mais Joe DaGrosa et son équipe vont devoir patienter avant de mettre leur stratégie en place.

                            Les transferts gérés par l’équipe actuelle

                            M6 sera bien aux commandes du club jusqu’à la cession définitive du club. Autrement dit, c’est Nicolas De Tavernost et les dirigeants actuels qui vont gérer ce mercato estival et valideront les futures arrivées. Des échanges auront lieu avec GACP sur le profil des joueurs achetés mais la décision finale appartiendra à M6. Et l’argent déboursé proviendra des caisses de la chaîne de télévision. Si les dépenses sur le marché de transferts sont supérieures aux ventes, GACP s’est engagé à rembourser M6.
                            It’s a strange way of doing business and it begs the following questions: why is it taking over 2 months? If there is a problem with the municipality that cannot be sorted before the end of September (Alain Juppé, président de Bordeaux Métropole a vérifié que les intérêts de la collectivité étaient préservés. Une décision définitive sera prise par le conseil de Bordeaux Métropole le 28 septembre.). Why not wait till then to buy the club? (it’s not like sellers are queuing up to buy Bordeaux for €100m).

                            I suppose the advantage for GACP with this deal is that they give themselves a bedding-in period without sweating too much over it, they just hand over all the important pre season stuff, recruitment etc. to the more experienced current owner for them to sort it out and manage the transition. And if come October the results are underwhelming, they can then come in with a new manager and staff.

                            I’m still not clear as to why US investors would put so much money on a mid-ranking+ French club with little chance of being a regular Champions Leaguer short of ploughing 100s of millions into it, which GACP has indicated they’re not prepared to do (they seem to want to inject a modest €30m per year, doesn’t sound much to me).

                            I understand why M6 bought Bordeaux (much cheaper at the time anyway), it was a very handy advertising vehicle for their TV channel, ditto Mike Ashley at NUFC; I understand why the Qataris bought PSG; I understand why McCourt bought OM (€45m) etc. But this one baffles me, €100m for Bordeaux, WTF… They have far more chance of hemorrhaging money and banging their heads against wall bricks trying to get into the elusive promised land of the CL (have they realised there’s only 2 spots? PSG being an automatic pass by dint of its €clout), it’s a massively frustrating and dicey business if you’re not PSG.

                            You know these guys and their methods much better than I do and I think you’re probably right about them being mostly interested in the stadium even if I think it’s crazy, there’s really hardly any money to make in that area, chicken feed for such a large company. The Matmut stadium is currently managed by Stade Bordeaux Atlantique plc, SBA has got a 30-year long contract, they’re a subsidiary of Vinci, a big concessions & construction firm, so getting their hands on the stadium wouldn't come cheap. That said, I’ve just been looking into it and it doesn’t seem to be a commercial success, SBA lost 3.6m the first year and 2m last year, so maybe SBA would be willing to sell that concessions, or part of it.

                            SBA, la société exploitant le Matmut-Atlantique est déficitaire depuis deux ans

                            https://www.20minutes.fr/bordeaux/20...tenariat-ville

                            https://www.sudouest.fr/2017/04/26/b...98977-4812.php
                            Although the SBA boss says that he thinks this asset can be profitable over the 30-year lease period, it’s their bread and butter so he should know but of course he would say that. So who knows, maybe SBA would be quite happy to sell that struggling business to GACP at the right price, especially as I've read that they see eye to eye with Juppé & the Bordeaux Métropole municipality.

                            I’ve just read too that Anschutz wanted to buy Tottenham in 2012 (for $700m) as they thought that Spurs' "revenue-generating history" was good, and that Spurs had even greater potential with the new stadium, which at the time Anschutz thought would be the Olympic Stadium (much cheaper than the new White Hart Lane, West Ham pay a peppercorn rent really, fucking rip-off for taxpayers but hardly surprising with Boris Johnson negotiating the deal IIRC).

                            http://www.sportspromedia.com/insigh...f_713_million_

                            Thing is, Anschutz is knocking on 80, why would he need that aggro and particularly with minnows like Bordeaux who have little chance of breaking into the French top 3? (even if I imagine he’s not terribly hands-on in this particular project). There must be easier investments in European football, although "investment" is a misnomer here.

                            All in all anyway, Bordeaux are probably better off with these Americans than with M6 who, after 19 years, had run out of steam, Bordeaux were ripe for a change.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              One possible reason for GACP to do the deal early has to do with how private equity firms raise most of the funds they invest (the principals will also generally commit some of their own funds).

                              Funds solicit "capital commitments" from investors, but only "draw down" those contributions when they actually have a use for the money. Even more importantly, the "commitment" will have a fixed term. If the fund doesn't draw on the funds by a date certain, the commitment expires and the investor no longer is obligated to pay up. Unsurprisingly, this leads funds to become more desperate about doing deals as the expiration date approaches.

                              I have no way of knowing if that is what happened here, but it is an absolute fact of life in the industry as a whole.

                              And yes, this is one of the things I used to do for a living.
                              Last edited by ursus arctos; 30-07-2018, 16:18.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                OK thanks for the insight, a bit beyond my ken but interesting nonetheless (for some reason, I thought your background was criminal law).

                                I've just looked at their squad and I can understand why Gus is a bit tense atm... But there's plenty of time yet.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  The first young English player in the French top flight since Jantzen Derrick? (and Tyrone Mears...)

                                  https://twitter.com/BadGones269/status/1024747808623128581

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    the best move for a foreign buyer into French club football would be to pick up a L2 team with pedigree and large local following like Lens for next to nothing and put the money into upgrading the roster for a quick climb to L1. Or a club with potential like Paris FC. I wonder what the pricetag on those would be.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      That's the core of the business case behind the Chinese-Spanish takeover of Sochaux, which Kev discussed in detail above (before we got caught up in the Girondins de Bordeaux deal).

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by linus View Post
                                        the best move for a foreign buyer into French club football would be to pick up a L2 team with pedigree and large local following like Lens for next to nothing and put the money into upgrading the roster for a quick climb to L1. Or a club with potential like Paris FC. I wonder what the pricetag on those would be.
                                        OK, let's go for a little focus on Lens then.

                                        That’s precisely what that shyster and Azerbaijani businessman Hafiz Mammadov tried, or purported to anyhow, to do with RC Lens when he bought the club in 2013, then in Ligue 2. The prelude to this miraculous purchase was pretty Lourdes-like it has to be said:

                                        The colourful Mammadov, owner of FC Baku (who appointed a 21 year-old "Football Manager gamer" as its manager, on Mammadov’s say-so) and with a significant shareholding in Atletico Madrid and bits in Porto FC, bought the club at the beginning of the 2013-14 season for €20 million. Within days, Mammadov promised the moon on a stick: investments of nearly €200m, Champions League qualification and wagonloads of top players (such as Ibrahimovic). Everyone up there was super excited but the excitement didn’t last long.


                                        Hafiz Mammadov and Gervais Martel, the historic chairman (since 1988) of Les Sang et Or (Papin was heavily involved in the deal, went to Baku with Martel several times and is said to have persuaded Mammadov to buy Lens)

                                        After 3 months it became obvious that Mammadov wasn’t this fabulously rich "oligarch" (oil and gas) that could turn Lens into a Man City of the slag heaps. Mr Mammadov didn’t fulfill his financial commitments and the DNCG was getting nervous as they chased the elusive funds.

                                        Nevertheless, Lens did well that season and were promoted back to Ligue 1 in May 2014. But the DNCG were not happy with the finances and barred them entry. Lens appealed to an arbitration committee of the CNOSF (Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français) and won.

                                        The 2014-15 close season very quickly turned into a nightmare. Mammadov had promised to the DNCG to put together a budget of ~€50m but failed to deliver. When push came to shove, he vanished from the face of the earth, saying that he’d been "slighted" by the DNCG and wouldn’t transfer the €12m necessary to finalise the budget to present to the DNCG as "his pride was hurt" (the DNCG were still refusing at this point to admit Lens in Ligue 1, the manager was refusing to have training sessions, players wouldn’t sign contract extensions at Lens etc.).

                                        Mammadov had gone AWOL, only to reappear mid-June… in Sheffield where the English media announced that he’d bought Wednesday from Milan Mandaric for £40m. The Football League duly ratified the purchase, as you do when you're the FL bods. Except that the money never materialise and a very frustrated Mandaric broke the deal 4 months later (sold a year later to Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri for £30m, still the owner).

                                        Mammadov had in fact got into serious financial trouble at home (he left his FC Baku in the lurch too, they were relegated) and a small-budget Lens (who had been barred from recruiting, obvs) were unsurprisingly relegated to the second tier in May 2015.

                                        Hammadov pissed about and messed around for the French football authorities and all parties involved for another year. In May 2016, he finally ending 3 years of roller-coaster misery for Lens when he sold the club to new owners, the majority (65%) shareholder Solferino (a Luxembourg company) and Atlético Madrid, the two being connected via some of the Atlético’s directors involved in Solferino at boardroom level. It went for a nominal sum (€660,000), with an instant injection of €5m of the reimbursement of some of the Lens debts.

                                        The club was hemorrhaging €15m per season and was close from being placed in administration and demoted to the depths of French football in D5.
                                        In Dec. 2017, Solferino bought back Atlé’s shares and became the sole owner.

                                        They’re financially sorted but still very unstable: they nearly went up in 2017 (missed promotion by just 1 point) with a budget of €18m, but finished 14th this season just gone (only a few pts above the first-relegated team) with a massive €41m budget, by far the highest in the division (best players left in 2017 as Lens had to clear the decks to balance the books, players such as the excellent Benjamin Bourigeaud – to Rennes, for €5m – and lots of new players from all over Europe who didn’t gel)

                                        The Sang et Or start the 2018-19 season with the highest budget (€36m) and lofty ambitions:

                                        The Ligue 2 budgets:

                                        1- Lens : 36 M€
                                        2- Metz : 30 M€
                                        3- Auxerre : 21 M€
                                        4- Nancy : 17 M€
                                        5- Sochaux : 16 M€
                                        6- Brest : 15 M€
                                        7- Le Havre : 14 M€
                                        8- Troyes : 13 M€
                                        9- Paris FC : 12,5 M€
                                        10- Lorient : 12 M€
                                        11- AC Ajaccio : 10,5 M€
                                        12- Niort : 9,5 M€
                                        – Valenciennes : 9,5 M€
                                        14- Châteauroux : 8,5 M€
                                        15- Grenoble : 8 M€
                                        – Red Star : 8 M€
                                        17- Orléans : 7,8 M€
                                        18- GFC Ajaccio : 7 M€
                                        19- Clermont : 6,8 M€
                                        20- Béziers : 6 M€

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Interesting stuff, merci Kev.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Mammadov recently re-appeared in what the New Yorker called "Trump's Worst Deal"

                                            After Donald Trump became a candidate for President, in 2015, Mother Jones, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and other publications ran articles that raised questions about his involvement in the Baku project. These reports cited a series of cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2009 and 2010, which were made public by WikiLeaks. In one of the cables, a U.S. diplomat described Ziya Mammadov as “notoriously corrupt even for Azerbaijan.”
                                            As Kev suggests, he was also behind the "Azerbaijan Land of Fire" branding on Atletico Madrid's kits and the "European Games" debacle in Baku.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              fuck sake, what next aq khan was director of football at atletico in the mid eighties?

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                                Mammadov recently re-appeared in what the New Yorker called "Trump's Worst Deal"

                                                As Kev suggests, he was also behind the "Azerbaijan Land of Fire" branding on Atletico Madrid's kits and the "European Games" debacle in Baku.
                                                Trump victim of coups bas [low blows, skulduggery] in Baku, I love it (and not insignificant low blows à bas coûts, even better).

                                                He doesn’t seem to be that astute a businessman, he bigly fucked up in Atlantic City too.

                                                Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                                                fuck sake, what next aq khan was director of football at atletico in the mid eighties?
                                                Atleti had Jesús Gil then, if that’s not enough for that poor club…

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  You don't get to become a real estate billionaire in NY without a modicum of business skills. Trump has got a lot of personal issues and shortcomings, but he's not clueless. The macro situation in Atlantic City was quite bad, with the industrial decline in the region and the rise of Las Vegas.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X