The final countdown

The clock’s ticking and the sand keeps falling inside the hourglass. One week to go. In a couple of days we will learn who are the top contenders for the most interesting bid in Bankia’s eyes in the selling process of the club. Yes, Valencia CF will change its owner. A new age is about to start, and fans are jumping in excitement. But, are they endowed to do so?

But lately the only thing people are talking about lies within the ‘Due Diligence’ data that has been scooped by newspaper Las Provincias and all its aftermath. For the first time (ever?) fans have had access to the money the players earn, the contracts that were signed, the buyout clauses, the real value of the Mestalla’s plots and the real financial situation of the club.

And the scandal ensued.

Most of the fans’ qualms don’t lie within the salaries paid to the player or the bonus quantities that were signed individually. Three dirty secrets were unveiled that obliterated the belief that former president’s Manuel Llorente management was exemplary: Albelda’s contract, that included the payment of 1.4 million euros this year even the player isn’t a member of the squad; the ‘protected’ contracts Llorente signed to some of the executive members of the club, that raised the cost of firing all of them globally from 0.6 to 1.9 million euros; and the fact that Valencia was also scammed in Bankia’s preferential shares scandal: the club lost over 150.000 euros only on this matter.

The ‘Due Diligence’ numbers prove that former administrations were unable to perform a clean, lean and responsible management all in all. They prove that, even Llorente’s managament was far less infamous that Juan Soler’s, it was far from perfect. And it all takes place with less than a week to go in the first chapter of Valencia’s selling to an outsider buyer. The clock keeps ticking.

 

Paco Polit (@pacopolit)

VLC NEWS – Sports

 

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