Sporting CP finances?!

[ajoobah]

Hi,

The club has about £10 million in balance and £3,5 million to buy players for. I bought Darwin Quintero for £2.3 million as the only one

For the season my income was £33 million and my expenditure was £53 million?! So I ended up with minus £15 million which dosnt quite make sense with the numbers I just mentioned. Anyway at the start at the second season Im down to £12 million in minus because I got a few TV money plus I sold some players. I havent bought any but isnt this quite weird? Sporting CP, big club. No debt. my attendance is 35,000 average and my wage budget was about £350.000. At the moment its down to £287.000 but that dosnt change much. Now I won the league so Ill get into Champions League but still I cant belive that the finances at the club is that bad

Can anyone explain this?

[Cougar2010]

It would be easier if we could see some screen shots of your finance screens but in general:

A) The club has about £10 million in balance and £3,5 million to buy players for - It doesn't, It has £10m in the balance of which the board will allow you to spend £3.5m on players.

B) Did you buy or sell any players using installments?

C) I don't think transfer spending is included in the Income/Expenditure on the summary screen but it is inc in the balance

[welshace]

the board will take their dividends at the end of the year also....

stadium costs,

wages,

loan repayments

etc

[marty78]

Thats right. The summary screen lists transfer money seperate to income and expenditure as it comes into both catagories (buying/selling). You really need to put your expenditure and income screens.

@welshace - Do they take a dividend if the club is in the red?

[ajoobah]

I know that the transfer money is part of the balance money. Here are the pictures

Expenditure:
http://imageshack.us/f/152/70467573.png/

Income:
http://imageshack.us/f/440/17563292.png/

Summary:
http://imageshack.us/f/832/56530505.png/

I think its crazy. It seems like a bug to be honest. How can the finances be so bad? If im lucky I can BUY a player next season!

I cant even offer my youth players contracts. Only non contracts. That must be because this crazy

[thompe]

You have spent 17 million on wages, thats your answer. You probably need to slice that in half, however, if you get into the CL groups you dont need to be that drastic. You have to realize that Portugal isnt that big of a league, I dont imagine the money prices and TV money being huge.

So the conclusion will be to reduce your wage spendings, I would aim to get it down to 10 million a year over a period of time, get into the group stages at the Champions League and finally sell your best players for the most you can get.

[welshace]

jesus! yeah the 17million on wages is steep as hell


you arent paying out dividends either so its not that.

a big club like sporting NEEDS to be playing in europe to make profit im sure... the wages of the high earners far outweigh the money coming in for the league.

look at your expenses, you have many many things coming out , like non footballing costs etc... it all adds up

[Cougar2010]

Ok

Looking at your finances the first thing that pops out is that you lost £20m last season despite only having a net transfer spend of around £2m.

This implies there is a lot wrong with your main finances.

Simply put the club is living way beyond its means and you will need to slash expenditure and/or improve income to make the club profitable.

The expenses that stand out:

A) Player Wages of £17m - This is more than half of all your annual income and a third of your total expenditure. It is also one of the main areas you have an influence on and you most certainly will have to reduce it to achieve an annual profit.

B) Player Bonuses of £3m - Tagged onto the wages above pushes the player cost above £20m. Whilst not a large expense on its own if you can make small reductions in several areas it might save you having to make large cuts elsewhere.

C) Staff wages of £2.9m - Like (B) small cuts in each area can add up, try to minimise your staff costs.

D) Ground maintenance of £4m - Have you asked for any ground improvements, training ground improvements or the pitch relaying. If not nothing you can do here and you'll just have to accept the expense.

E) Non-Football Costs/Match Day Exps/Other of £13m - Nothing you can do about these but you do need to be aware of how much they are when working out how much you can spend on wages.

F) Youth Setup of £5.4m - This is new in FM12 and I'm not familiar with it but I'm sure its an area that can be reduced.

G) Scouting costs of £1.5m - Whilst not excessive if you are looking to save money you can perhaps cut this back a little - Scout closer to home.

H) Tax of £2.7m - You pay tax on profits so next season this will reduce as you made a loss last season.


As for the income side I get the impression you weren't in the Champions League last season, if thats the case qualifying this season will lead to a large increase in income from gate receipts & prize/TV money.



Overall the Champions League qualification will improve your finances but to make the club profitable I feel you do need to cut back on player wages (Maybe aim to reduce it to around £12m a year) and be careful with other areas.

[ajoobah]

I always cut down wages. Players who is on big contracts, staff and even youth players I cut meaning that instead of for example 35 youth players I will have around 22-24

So it comes as bit of a surprise that players wages is the main problem even though I can se that most of the money goes to wages. But £350,000 a week? Isnt much. That is now down to £279,000 and I will go into the Champions League and hopefully make it far so I can get more TV money but still. I havnt had a chance to strengthen the squad so it will be difficult

Also I have players who I just cant get rid of. Jamie Valdes, Leandro Grimi and Luis Aguiar (injured). In all its 35,000 more I can save so there is room for improvement

But OK ill se it as a challenge. Ive played with small clubs of course but my finances have never been so bad and Sporting CP is one of few big clubs who dosnt have any debt

Oh yes I got Real Madrid, Basel and Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League. Important!

[thompe]

You have cut your wage budget by 71000 pr/week and qualified for the group stages? Thats almost 10 million, which is 50% of your total loss last season.
I'd say that its an impressive start, well done!

[Katarian]

But £350,000 a week? Isnt much.

I was just about breaking even when I was managing Ajax with 74k people turning up to games with wages of £300k a week. I couldn't make a decent profit, without selling players, until I was in the Champions League.

The one thing you should not do is cut back on Junior Coaching or Youth Recruitment. If you can you might want to increase spending in those areas to increase the chances of decent youth players coming through and becoming First Team players or bringing in some money in sales.

[ajoobah]

I was just about breaking even when I was managing Ajax with 74k people turning up to games with wages of £300k a week. I couldn't make a decent profit, without selling players, until I was in the Champions League.

The one thing you should not do is cut back on Junior Coaching or Youth Recruitment. If you can you might want to increase spending in those areas to increase the chances of decent youth players coming through and becoming First Team players or bringing in some money in sales.

OK. No I wont either. Still have youth coaches and a good youth team

[r0x0r]

70k per week is 280k per month is 3.something mil not 10 million.

[dgibson9999]

think he was including the money you get for qualifying for the group stages of the CL as well in that figure.

[kingjericho]

Sporting are completely dry IRL, especially after the money spent this season and the non participation in the Champions League this season and the next, so maybe the researcher had that in consideration. They made a bank loan this year of about €20m to be able to buy players.

[eple]

I don't think it's a bug. Rather I think you have a chairman who is ambitious that will either invest or take up a loan if the club goes too much in the red. The club is allowing high wages and some money for transfer, but expect you to take the club into European competitions to cover the loss from the first season.

[Sikker]

@welshace - Do they take a dividend if the club is in the red?

In my save they do those greedy ********. I've lost a great deal the last couple of seasons because of this and started fearing bankruptcy because of this. (If you mean by being in the red that the club lost money that season and on top of that paid out dividends).
Luckily the board finally agreed to buy a new stadium and take out a huge loan. In my experience there are never paid out dividends when the club has a loan.

The one thing you should not do is cut back on Junior Coaching or Youth Recruitment. If you can you might want to increase spending in those areas to increase the chances of decent youth players coming through and becoming First Team players or bringing in some money in sales.

In the last ten seasons where I've maxed out on Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment I guess I've lost something like £50M including player sales. I'm managing Brøndby in Denmark so maybe you get a better outcome managing in a higher rep league...

[Katarian]

In the last ten seasons where I've maxed out on Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment I guess I've lost something like £50M including player sales. I'm managing Brøndby in Denmark so maybe you get a better outcome managing in a higher rep league...

Do you mean you lost £50m in total, or lost £50m running just your youth programs? As Ajax my Youth program lost the club money but only because I refused to sell the best players and developed them for the First Team. The ones that weren't good enough for the first team only brought in about £1m-£2m a year, but I got at least one good youth players a year (I was actually getting 4 good players a year at one point but 3/4 of them were Goalkeepers) that attracted bids of £2m-£3m each. Once I left the club managed to get about £40m in one season selling all the players I developed.

[Sikker]

I see I may have exaggerated a bit. I've spend £40M in a 10 year period on the youth setup. On top of that are the expenses to reach State of the Art youth facilities and reaching Exceptional Junior Coaching and Extensive Youth Recruitment. I guess that amounts to £10-15M. And I've earned ~£10M on player sales from own youth recruitment. Right now I only have 1 player in my 1st team squad from own youth recruitment and I doesn't expect to earn anything from the current players in U19.

So all in all a big waste of money for me But then again I have to spend money on something as no developed player that are willing to join my team are worth it. I only only buy players aged 18 or less and develop them myself. (Except for the free transfers from Barcelona and the likes where the players are sometimes aged 19-20)

[Katarian]

So all in all a big waste of money for me But then again I have to spend money on something as no developed player that are willing to join my team are worth it.

It's less of a waste of money then paying dividends .

[Sikker]

It's less of a waste of money then paying dividends .

That's very true