Genoa – Important step towards corporate sustainability, yesterday, for Genoa. The rossoblù club has received the approval of the agreement signed at the end of October with the Revenue Agency for the restructuring of the tax debt. That of the Court of Genoa was the last step foreseen by the procedure pursuant to articles 57, 60 and 63 of the Crisis Code (Legislative Decree n° 14 of 12 January 2019) which will allow the rossoblù club to close the match with the tax authorities by paying the 35 % of the overall tax debt which amounts to approximately 111 million euros.
The debt restructuring now sanctioned with the approval of the Court is part of a series of operations implemented by the management of 777 Partners to make the club sustainable in the shortest possible time, so much so that the break-even between costs and revenues for the year is not far away. This is a priority for Genoa, as CEO Andres Blazquez declared a few weeks ago: «We are cleaning the club of the dirt of the past. Little by little we will fix the club to bring Genoa to where it belongs.”
The agreement signed with the Revenue Agency, which has now received the stamp of the Court, guarantees Genoa to significantly reduce the fiscal burden of previous taxes inherited from the previous management. The tax debts of the rossoblù club amount to 111 million (the total liabilities in June were around 277 million from which, however, some credits and the assets represented by the player pool must be subtracted) but thanks to the agreement the club will have the possibility to remedy its position with the tax authorities, paying just over 37 million euros in 10 years: 35% of what is due.
In exchange, the company presented an “Economic Plan” in which he specifies and undertakes for the next few years to increase revenues from TV rights, sponsorships, capital gains deriving from the purchase and sale of footballers and proceeds from ticketing and merchandising. At the same time, a broader reduction in labor costs is also envisaged, a strategy that Genoa has been putting into practice since the arrival of the 777s. Furthermore, in the agreement, the Revenue Agency has obtained financial support from 777 Genoa Cfc Holdings Spa, majority shareholder of Genoa, of a financial contribution of 57 million of which 30 have already been paid. To guarantee the expected payments, the agreement provides for the pledge of the brand and archive rights plus a letter of patronage from the parent company, 777 Italy Sports Holding, in which it undertakes to respect the provisions of the agreement.
The procedure used by Genoa is similar to the one already chosen from Sampdoria, even if the rossoblù club used the Crisis Code only to restructure the debt with the tax authorities, the only creditor that is part of the agreement that received the approval. This is, however, a new path open to all clubs, not just football ones, but one that can lead from Genoa with the two clubs, especially as regards the percentage of the amount to be paid to settle accounts with the past.
The arrival of the approval now opens a new phase, not only from a corporate point of view but also from a sporting point of view. In the sense that, currently, article 90 of the Noif (Internal organizational rules of the FIGC) in paragraph 4 bis also extends certain limitations on the market to companies that choose this procedure to restructure the debt. In summary, as confirmed by the lawyer Giancarlo Viglione, head of the legislative office of the FIGC, «in the two market windows following the approval it will be possible to carry out operations while always maintaining a positive balance».
In this case it is the January session and the summer one. In practice, to buy a new player you will first need to sell someone and the balance between the purchase and the sale must remain positive. Furthermore, the figure includes not only the cost of the card but also how much the club will potentially save on the salary of the member who is sold. Wanting to give an example to simplify, if a club sells a player for one million euros and at the same time also saves 200 thousand euros in wages, it will be able to buy a new player by spending a maximum of 1.199 million. As he had recalled on the occasion of a conference in Milan at the San Siro Stadium on 21 November last Milan, Viglione explains that it is a sort of “sanction” that is applied to the club. «At the moment the regulatory reference is that of article 90 paragraph 4bis which introduces this type of limitation – explains Viglione – it is not excluded that something could change between now and January given that this is an absolute novelty».
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