Source L'Equipe | Jean Le Bail | November 26, 2018
Lyon and Nice are the first clubs to evaluate their workforce according to a method approved by the financial authorities and carried by the company Ginkyo ratings.
" As training and trading players are the basis of our economic model, it is fundamental that these players are fairly valued," explains Vincent Ponsot, OL's deputy general manager.
"Why is the financial evaluation of its players so important for Olympique Lyonnais?
We want to be able to show the true value of the club to the outside world. And this true value depends in part on the intangible asset that is the players. The problem is that today, only 20% of these players' assets appear in our financial statements. The reason for this is that these balance sheets do not take into account the players who have been trained and that they discount the players who have been purchased, as their contract expires, even though they are gaining in value on the market. As training and trading players are the basis of our business model, it is fundamental that these players are fairly valued.
Lyon: €394 million in player capital
To what extent is the club penalized by this lack of "fair" evaluation?
In ten years, 130 players from the youth program have signed a professional contract at OL and these players have been transferred for a total of 350 M€. However, their current value does not appear in the balance sheet. Similarly, the training center, which represents an annual cost of €10 million, is considered an expense on the balance sheet, whereas in any conventional company, Research and Development is valued. There is therefore a difference in treatment that we believe is not justified and does not reflect the reality of what we are.
The past transfers of the OL are not enough to convince bankers or investors that the OL has important assets in its dressing room?
We regularly demonstrate the recurrence of our player trading activity to make financial players understand our business model, but as long as the players are not valued in the accounts, we have to admit that they are not appreciated in the same way. If we had had this tool at the time we approached the banks to build the Groupama Stadium, I think we would have received a better reception.
How much are the players worth? Four evaluators on the test bench
How did you arrive at the current solution?
We started thinking back in 2011. We quickly realized that we needed to rely on independent expertise. That's why we teamed up with Ginkyo ratings, whose founder is an academic and whose valuation methods have been validated by the Ministry of the Economy. All the calculations are "auditable" by a chartered accountant, an auditor. The evaluation of each player is based on more than 200 criteria, not only related to the player's statistics, and is carried out in part by external evaluators, coaches for example.
Do you recommend other clubs to follow your example?
Nice is already doing it. The others also have an interest in it. Maybe even more than us because they are not like OL as owners of their stadium and the players' assets are therefore more important for them in proportion to the value of the whole club.
