How much does a soccer player really cost? A Lyon-based start-up has the answer

How much does a soccer player really cost? A Lyon-based start-up has the answer

By Jean-Baptiste Bernardeau, published on February 26, 2019 - LE FIGARO Economie

Ginkyo Ratings Agency - Article Le Figaro of 26/02/2019

In collaboration with Olympique Lyonnais, Ginkyo Ratings has developed a unique accounting tool to measure the "intangible value" of a professional soccer player, without relying solely on his statistics. An initiative that has been welcomed by training clubs.

It is well known that money is the lifeblood of modern soccer. It is even the primary concern of club presidents, whether they are large or small. Training clubs, in particular, are suffering the consequences of an accounting paradox. The financial balance sheets of the clubs in the French championship take into account the wealth acquired, linked to the purchase of a footballer, and not the wealth created, that of the player from the training center. The latter are not subject to any accounting entries. On average, it is estimated that only 20% of the workforce is included in a club's balance sheet.

This accounting rule considerably weakens the assets of the clubs and makes their financing difficult. An innovation developed by a small company in Lyon intends to answer this accounting headache. Ginkyo Ratings, a company with three employees, has been proposing for several years to integrate the "intangible value" of footballers into the balance sheet of clubs.

What's "in the player's head

The start-up, which initially specialized in measuring intangible capital in companies, became aware of the problems faced by training clubs during an impromptu meeting in Bercy with the directors of Olympique Lyonnais. For three years, Ginkyo Ratings and the OL will collaborate to develop a new model to measure the human capital of players. And they succeeded.

The stated objective is to quantify everything that is "in the player's head", apart from his sporting performance. "Stats are not everything. It does not give the state of mind of the player", underlines Vincent Ponsot, assistant general manager of the Lyon club. "You can't reduce the quality of a player to his quality on the field", you have to consider it "beyond his statistical results", adds Pierre Caillet, head of Ginkyo Ratings. Apart from goals scored, assists and the number of successful dribbles, the value of a player is extra-sporting. The main difficulty lies in the reliability of the measurement.

An independent evaluation

Seven major characteristics are analyzed: health, physical, relational, technical, tactical, potential and mental. These different areas are themselves subdivided into more than 200 study criteria. The "mental" category allows us to evaluate the player in terms of his attention, his concentration and his motivation. The regularity of the performances, the capacity to surpass oneself and - more surprisingly - the role played by the player's family are also taken into account. The "relational" aspect covers the player's lifestyle, his social autonomy (adaptation to other clubs), his ability to set an example to his teammates on and off the field.

The study of these characteristics is conducted by former coaches or professional players, such as Raymond Domenech or Eric Carrière. Managers of the studied club also participate. At the end, the model displays the intangible value of each player evaluated. Thus, according to the rules of classical accounting, the workforce of Olympique Lyonnais was valued at 82 million euros at the end of June 2018. The Ginkyo Ratings method increases the value of the same squad by more than 380%, to €395 million!

This staggering amount would make more than one club president dream, but is it reasonable to think that all soccer professionals will adhere to this system? Pierre Caillet is optimistic. Officially recognized by Bercy, the evaluation model developed by his start-up has been presented to French soccer clubs for several years. According to him, a global implementation would allow many League 1 teams to redress their accounts and raise their balance sheets to the level of their sporting ambitions. In addition to regaining financial equilibrium, the clubs could also be able to attract foreign investors.

Ginkyo's methodology could also be applied to other sports, notably rugby. In the meantime, the Lyon-based start-up is approaching members of the French Ligue 1, some major European clubs and the English market.


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