The ball rolls and on the financial field businesses linked to sports are activated. Sales of passes, loans, transmission rights, training expenses. A field without a common financial language, with many “gaps”. Until yesterday.
These gaps motivated the Superintendence of Companies to launch the Accounting Orientation Guide for football clubs, which, in the end, are companies.
Establishes guidelines on the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of financial information for teams. Rules that were needed, according to superintendent Billy Escobar, designed to bring transparency to a sport that moves passions and millions not only in stadiums.
The document includes guidelines for the management of financial information and also sets standards on the management of “intangible assets”, a topic that was the subject of discussion in the past. “This guide has to do with all the management of football companies, which were formerly non-profit foundations, but today must be governed by all the fiscal parameters that welcome companies, determining the real assets of the clubs. , income from television broadcasts and even the types of loans and transfers of the players, “explained Escobar.
The objective is to prevent and guide the clubs about the “gaps or breaches” that have occurred, or may occur in the future; which would lead to penalties by the surveillance and control entity. In other words, so that they are not out of place.
The guide imparts bases and establishes concepts. For example, that the so-called “training costs incurred in the training of the player, correspond to research expenditures, therefore, they will be directly affected by the expense in the income statement”. Inventories also enter the guide; These assets owned to be sold, made up of merchandise alluding to the club marketed through its own stores or other distributors, must be realized at the lower of cost and net realizable value.
The guide is oriented so that all accounting matters are recorded; it emphasizes the intangibles, of which the federations’ permits to operate as clubs stand out, since this has a financial value, as well as the rights of the players when they are loaned or transferred to other clubs. Set examples and exercises as models for negotiating broadcasting rights, and definitions of homegrown players.
In transfers, it clarifies that they can only be recognized if they have been the product of an effective acquisition, since in addition to the fact that said intangible is acquired with the expectation of being able to obtain its future benefits, this will be the only way to obtain an accurate measurement of a unique and particular asset. .
The guide aims, according to the superintendent, to fill in the gaps to be able to talk about fair play in the financial field.
Junior and Nacional, the two teams with the highest operating income
The Superintendency of Companies presented last year the report on the financial behavior of 34 Colombian soccer clubs, specifically the comprehensive income statement and the statement of financial position of the teams in categories A and B. In terms of weight in their income operational, the 10 largest teams in 2020 were: Junior, Nacional, Cali, Deportivo Independiente Medellín, América, Millonarios, Santa Fe, Tolima, Envigado and La Equidad. The team with the highest income was Junior.
