The financial reality of football returning to Villarreal

For some time, there’s been a talk about a football economic bubble as you could see transfers getting more expensive as years went on, all thanks to more revenue from TV rights. But not only transfers were increased, salaries for players were also going up. This result of this is that now La Liga has been in a hurry to return football as soon as possible. Not having TV money could stop bankruptcy for some clubs.

As reported by El Periódico Mediterráneo today, Javier Tebas is not so worried about this season, he’s more worried about next season. That’s why he’s advising teams to reduce their budgets in a 20% to 30%: no big transfers, with more interest on their canteras and loans. Of course, for Villarreal the loss of revenue due to ticketing and merchandising won’t be so hard as for the big clubs. This is where Fernando Roig Negueroles comes in, who will have to make sure Villarreal is financially stable.

The return of football without fans already has a cost, as Tebas has said that 350 million will be lost. Villarreal was already prepared to this and more, as they had already agreed to a reduction of the 25% for the roster salaries in case the league wouldn’t return until next season. But Negueroles’ now will work to stop the economic bleeding that will happen. The TV contracts can be modified in this period for less money, and there’s uncertainly about the bars which won’t be paying the right to air the matches now.

Another point of contention is what will be done with the season ticket holders. Villarreal still has no answer to that, as they are looking how to refund the 19.000 holders as they won’t know when they will be able to return to their seat. This represents the 10% of the budget, which is not too much, but the money will come from another area. The good news is Villarreal have money, so shouldn’t be affected so much compared to others who could be in that fine line between having something in the bank and not having. We will se how all of this ends