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Valencia owner Peter Lim: ‘I have a football club and see what happens next. Nothing ‘

For Peter Lim, having Valencia CF, one of the most successful clubs in Spain, “did a great job of connecting to the internet”, allowing the billionaire retailer to join the top table in the world’s most popular sports.

“One day we are having dinner together [club] “You have sheikhs, kings, mafia, black, white and yellow. And we argued: ‘Why did you buy this player for so much money?’ We were like kids. ”These games can be anything but parallel.”

One of the richest people in Singapore with a net worth of $ 2.7bn, according to Forbes, Lim describes Valencia as a “treasure trove”, which makes him popular with players like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. Although the 67-year-old does not want to sell Valencia, he believes he is worth more than the 100 euros he spent in 2014 to earn a bigger share in the club.

The grief can also be shared by club members, but it infuriates Valencia fans, who accuse him of using the team to make a profit only if he gets results online. This abandonment is shared in the middle of football, with growing tensions among sponsors who see their club as a local organization, and businesses are taking advantage of the opportunity to see an international audience.

Fans at Arsenal and Manchester United of England have set up demonstrations against US billionaire owners, instigated by theirs failed Trying to establish funding European Super League. Valencia, one of Spain’s top clubs, was not named big enough to be invited to the tournament.

Sponsors challenge US Liverpool’s John Henry and Fenway Sports Group over current Super League losses © Oli Scarff / AFP via Getty

“You’re looking at the Super League, just [for big clubs to] survive, they don’t care about the fans, ”said Lim. “Why not? Because. . . you have an audience that broadcasts 100m in Asia. . . Stay with them [the Super League club owners] Have you ever thought about local medicine, the difficulty of seeing it on Wednesday because I will be working the next day? They don’t care. ”

Lim, however, says fans need to understand that the football business type is broken.

Hard money

Sharp weaknesses as a result of the plague he has revealed the amount of debt to leading clubs such as FC Barcelona of Spain and Inter Milan of Italy, which for many years has wreaked havoc on the silver medalists.

The same problem exists in Valencia, which under Lim has turned tax revenue in just one year out of the seven-year debt management debt of nearly 200 million. Meanwhile, team salaries have risen from € 58.2m in 2014 to € 116.4m in 2020, according to KPMG’s plan.

To address this, Lim agreed to sell firearms to players early this season, saying Valencia would instead rely on encouraging young players at the school.

Valencia’s supporters accuse Lim of being careless, and directing the club to succeed. General manager Javi Gracia was sacked last week by the team in 14th place in La Liga, a major part of Spain, just before relegation from qualifying for a lucrative European competition.

Gracia is the eighth manager from Valencia under Lim. Among the short-term nominees was Gary Neville, a former Manchester United player with a talent for coaching who only lasted four months. Lim and seller In Salford City, a small English club consisting of Neville and other former United players.

“All his followers have lost faith in him,” said Marcos Colomer, a member of the Libertad VCF, a Valencia support group that is helping to organize a protest against Lim’s ownership this week. “We can only see when they will have the opportunity to make a lot of money by selling the best advertiser.”

Valencia's finances have weighed heavily on profits

A young fisherman, Lim was a shareholder before he quickly returned to the Singapore oil company Wilmar. He will sell his shares in what became one of the world’s largest businesses for $ 1.5bn in 2010. Beyond football, his products include hospitals, construction and real estate.

That same year, the opportunity to buy Liverpool was realized. That effort led to a number of clubs looking for him as a prospector, including Valencia, who was struggling financially.

In the early 2000s, Valencia played, and lost, in the last two Champions League finals. In an effort to win the trophy that Europe so desperately wants, club managers spend a lot of money on the game. They also began building a new stadium, with the help of the Mestalla marketing plan, an existing site, for manufacturers.

The financial crisis of 2008 curtailed construction work. Valencia’s debt was about to collapse. “I don’t want to run [the club] down, but. . .[Valencia]he is 102 years old, “said Lim.” He has not won a Champions League and [the past leaders] he wants to win no matter what? You got stones on your head. ”

Valencia fans praised Lim’s arrival as assistant to Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea cross or Sheikh Mansour of Manchester City, believes they have gone into the deepest pockets to fund the rise of the team.

The facts have been very consistent. Under Lim’s rule, the club has worthy of the Champions League in three seasons, and two years ago he won the Spanish Copa del Rey. These rises have been disrupted by inconsistencies and negative consequences.

Valencia’s unfinished stadium was just an empty shell. Financial trials passed at the beginning of this season. “The debt we would have accumulated is not permanent,” said Lim, although he hopes to find a “solution” to complete the project.

Gaspar Romero, a lifelong enthusiast whose grandfather was a club reader, is skeptical: “He runs the club the way Valencia always comes from the Champions League. Every year the debt grows bigger and they have to sell the player.”

Lim dismisses opponents of his leadership saying “he is trying to make sure I don’t sell the club to anyone but them. These people are arguing ‘because we are Valencians, we know the club’.

Under supervision

Fans have criticized Lim’s interest in player sales and his close contact with Jorge Mendes, Portugal’s senior assistant who has organized several football shows in Valencia. Lim defends the relationship, saying many of Mendes’ clients, such as João Cancelo and André Gomes, were later sold out for a profit.

The financial crisis of 2008 banned construction at the new Valencia stadium and funding was unavailable © Xisco Navarro / SOPA Images / Sipa via Reuters

Prior to the purchase of Valencia, Lim was, however, involved in “third party ownership”, acquisition of financial freedom and restitution from future transfers. The practice was banned by Fifa, the governing body of international football, a year after Lim bought Valencia via his Hong Kong Meriton car.

Meriton’s back-end agreement on the TPO plan has been monitored by Fifa, but Lim refuses to participate in this. According to club accounts, Meriton has loaned the club about $ 50 million, a loan that will be available against future sales of the first eight players.

Lim described the plan as a “lie” that proves Meriton is better than other lenders if Valencia makes a mistake. The lender in Spain Bankia also has a debt of about 150 million. When Meriton’s loans were repaid, Lim insisted that any sales proceeds remain with the club.

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Dissatisfied with these responses, Libertad VCF seeks to attract thousands of people to Valencia to participate. In those places, according to Spanish law, the club may have the opportunity to monitor the performance of clubs, such as securing agreements and even electing a board member.

But Lim says the cases that Valencia use to focus on player business, or profits from the club in other ways, are well known.

“I can do 101 things to make money, and money that I believe I can manage well,” he said. “This is a very good thing. I wake up, I have a football club and I see what happens next. Nothing else.

“And I feel sorry for [fans], but among us, among our peers, we say that the smallest detail gives you a sense of purpose. “


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