In his long interview that was published in Corriere dello Sport, Inter president Erick Thohir provided the most in-depth look at the Nerazzurri’s financial situation and how he is trying to build a Champions League squad without falling foul of FIFA’s rules on irresponsible debt.
“There’s an economic difference between being in the Champions League and the Europa League,” Thohir told Il Corriere dello Sport. “If you’re in the CL, your salaries can be raised because you have greater revenue.
“If you’re not in there, you can’t spend as much. Right now we spend about €80m yearly on the salaries, and I believe that’s going to stay more or less the same, in spite of a few slight amendments.
“We’re compelled to respect certain parameters, what with the Financial Fair Play rules and the agreement we signed with UEFA.
“Sure, we could raise the salaries to a €130m limit, spend more on the signings than we make from the sales, and I’m sure that would make the fans happy – myself included, because I am an Inter fan.
“But what would happen to us should we end up second in the standings without following the UEFA rules? We wouldn’t play the Champions League, nor the Europa League.
“That’s why respecting the FFP is mandatory. We must keep the salary cap where it is, and reach a balance between sales and signings that will give us a revenue of €50m over the next transfer window.”
Thohir was then asked whether the team would sell its key players.
“Why should we? If we sold everyone, in 2016-17 we wouldn’t reach the Europa League nor the Champions League, and that’s our target. Of course we want to reach the CL, but if we end up in the EL it won’t be a catastrophe.
“It would be more problematic to be excluded from the European cups. That’s why, I’ll say it again, we’re not going to sell six of our starters. Two or three maybe, but certainly not six.
“[Ivan] Perisic, [Mauro] Icardi and Miranda, for example, are here with us, and we certainly wouldn’t let them go, even if somebody came and asked for them. We have a strategy.”
Fascinating comments here from Thohir. First, he confirms that Inter’s wage bill for next season will be about what it wad this past season, around €80m. With that number I cannot see how Mancini can think that Inter could possibly afford Yaya Toure. Toure would need to take somethng like a 75% paycut to fit into Inter’s wage strucutr and that is not going to happen.
Second is that Thohir confirmed that Inter will have a net transfer spend of €50m over the next transfer window. That means the club will take in a net of €50m more than they will spend. Even if Inter were to spend €30m on new signings this summer, they would have to sell €80m worth of players to make the books balance. Who can they sell that would raise that sort of money?
