Funnily enough, Italy also have a system under which clubs’ books are surveyed to make sure they can afford to operate in the following year — they’re sanctioned for going under, but not for spending more than they take in. (Of course, clubs with essentially unlimited bank accounts can afford pretty much anything, even if they’re operating deep in the red.)

Thanks, as usual, for your insight tmc. (And I totally agree with you about Cassano, imho that would be a massive disatser, not to mention a horribly disappointing possible conclusion to a pleasingly rational transfer season.)

It would be really great to see other leagues adopt a similar model, perhaps one not as strict as France’s, but one with oversight that would keep clubs from financially collapsing.

The club’s first season back in Serie A was the 2004-2005 season, where they narrowly escaped bouncing back to the Serie B (and of course proceeded to get mixed up in the Calciopoli scandal).

In the summer of 2005, La Viola purchased Luca Toni from Palermo for 10 million Euros. Also, Frey joined the club permanently that summer for an undisclosed amount (he played 2004-2005 with Fiorentina on loan from Parma). Pazzini and Bojinov (for 13 million Euros) were also acquired in 2005. As an aside, it is pretty crazy to see that they paid more for Bojinov than Toni. Granted Bojinov was on some incredible form as a promising young player at Lecce, but clearly Toni was a great bargain at that price.

The reason Firoentina was in the red at that point in time is they outlaid a bunch of money with the goal of improving the squad to get to a European placing, which they did at the end of the 2005-2006 season, qualifying for the Champions League. Now, I don’t know how much that is worth to a club exactly, but I’m positive that it is worth at least 20 million Euros to gain entrance to the Champions League. This plan would have worked perfectly, except for the fact that the Calciopoli scandal delayed the eventual entry of Fiorentina into the Champions league for another 2 years. Sometimes, you gotta spend money to make money.

I also think this is why you have seen Fiorentina be so active on the transfer market this summer, as they are making the transition from being a club with big aspirations to a club on the verge of becoming a “big” club. Now they can think about paying players higher wages than the previous 1.5 million Euros per season cap that was the cause of Luca wanting to get out of town. I just hope they don’t botch this too much and make too many changes. I don’t want to see them sell Pazzini, Bojinov and Reginaldo for Gilardino, who in my eyes is a winy punk who thinks he’s better than Fiorentina. These guys got the team to the point of the Champions League again (though the points penalty means UEFA Cup), lets run with this squad next year to see how they do and then make more changes should they be necessary.

(And I actually have no love for Cassano. That said? If this Inter thing happens, I will immediately find something lovable about him. Yes, I am a whore.)

Much more pleasing to look at than the “chicken-dance while I grab my tighty-whiteys” Cassano pic that you are so fond of.

You and your primadonna drama queens…

Obviously, it would be troubling for Inter to lose that staggering amount if Moratti were trying to run the team to make a profit. I suspect he has other objectives that rank much higher than making money off of the squad – he has plenty of other ways to line his pockets.