By Monica Villar
April 23 – Controversial Sevilla president José María del Nido has said that although they are still chasing a European place, the club’s financial crisis is such that every player has a price on his head and any of them could leave in the summer.
Sevilla FC are currently 10th in the league, eight points away from Europa League, 12 from Champions League, del Nido believes that not qualifying for Europe next season “isn’t considered a failed season, it’s the normal thing”. Nonetheless he believes the squad he has is more than capable of playing in Europe.
“With less than two months to go for the season to finish, I don’t want to name names on players that are up for sale. Every single player has a price and any of them could leave us in the summer”. However he hopes that Sevilla’s best players – Navas, Negredo, Medel – will stay next season.
The 55-year-old insists that they need to sign players with great care, “We need to get it right, it seems that now we have a good technical team, but it’s hard to sign good players, even more so without money”.
Sevilla FC, like most Spanish clubs, is riddled with debt. Del Nido defended himself by saying that Sevilla isn’t the club with the most debt, “Look at the debt that the rest of clubs have, that way you would ask ‘why aren’t you jumping with joy at the Sánchez Pizjuán (Sevilla’s stadium)?’ Out of the 42 current professional clubs, around 10 will have to disappear.”
However, he does admits that some of the Sevilla’s players are owed money. “Approximately 50% of the squad is owed 10% of last year’s salary,” he said.
“To put it in another way, a player that gets paid €2m is owed €200,000. Anyway, when a player goes on the pitch, they just think of doing a good match for the team. I have been involved in football for 20 years, and I don’t believe otherwise.”
Del Nido believes the new LFP president Javier Tebas will change things. “It looks like he is coming with new ideas and the same criteria as 10 or 11 football clubs in the Spanish first Division.” Tebas is not coming to the LFP cold, he is currently a vice-president.
A reform of the playing schedule is considered imperative by del Nido. “We have to find a solution to the matches on Fridays and Mondays, especially the later ones, we have to get rid of them, or our stadiums will be empty. Javier Tebas is aware of this. There is a possibility that there will be no football on Mondays next season.”
But it will be a difficult decision for Sevilla to go against the demands of the LFP. “We have a budget of €55m, of which around €35m comes from the television rights. If we decide to tell Media Pro ‘you can’t televise any of our matches’ we may win more members, but we would not have enough money to pay salaries.”
Del Nido has always been surrounded by controversy. He is charged with misappropriation of public funds when he was the lawyer of both Jesús Gil and Julián Muñóz – former Mayors of Marbella – and could be imprisoned for seven and a half years. He is in the process of appealing this decision and has said he will remain president of Sevilla FC until there is a final sentence.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734836140labto1734836140ofdlr1734836140owedi1734836140sni@r1734836140alliv1734836140.acin1734836140om1734836140. Monica Villar is news editor of leading Spanish football website www.laliganews.tv