News

01 Mar 2013

«Hannover may not have many Anzhi’s opportunities, but we will put up a fight»

On the eve of the 1/16 Europa League match between Anzhi and Hannover 69 the president of the German club gave a masterclass to the students of «Sport Industry Management» RMA business school program, having dutifully displayed the best example of German scrupulousness and adaptiveness.

«Hannover» – is a profitable club, and the way we are currently developing is well within the guidelines standards of financial fair play, that are enforced by the UEFA. Our current annual budget is 80 million. And you know there is a rule: if you want to achieve profitability, your player's salaries cannot exceed more than half of your expenditures. We diligently maintain this proportion, and the volume of our current salary payments is somewhere around 35-38 million euros per year.

The main article of our club's expenditures, is the salaries, followed by taxes, and stadium maintenance costs, -which right now are around 6 million a year, then the maintenance of the Academy - which is another 3,5 million. And of course, the salaries of the club's office staff, of which we currently have around 40 men and women.

As per our income structure 40% of it comes from the sponsorships and advertising. About as much we also get from the sales of broadcasting rights: one part of which is evenly shared between all clubs of the Bundesliga, and the other part is shared based on the club's performance track record for the past 5 years, - so it is a constantly fluctuating value. Finally, another 20% - are the ticket sales and club affiliated merchandising.

Our transfer policy depends on the price - which is a subject of great responsibility. German law views the purchasing of players as an investment that is taxable by the state, and the taxation is very significant. So for example, you have purchased a transfer of the player for 9 million euros and signed the deal for three years. So this means that over the course of these three years on top of the player's salary you will also spend just as much in taxes alone.

Therefore, our transfer policy is based on the idea of recruiting the younger players, that normally are less expensive, but who may have a great potential that would allow us to make a solid return on our investment into them. Here is a good example: Mame Diouf. Last year we have acquired him for 2,7 million euros, and the current statistics are - 15 goals scored in 27 games. If we decided to sell this player right now, we would not let him go for less than 12 million. Although, we actually do not contemplate selling him anytime soon. But joking aside, our transfer rate is at the present moment negative - that is we spend more money acquiring new players than we make earn from selling them: something we should certainly acknowledge and try change this existing trend.

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