UDINESE REACH LA LIGA AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF GRANADA – Part Two

By Alex Bromley
Updated: 21 July, 2011

By Alex Bromley

Following Part one earlier today, we now discover what part Udinese play in the Granada story…

Granada CF were in financial difficulty and in serious danger of also dissolving. Again using his links through being an agent, Quique Pina negotiated a deal with Udinese’s president, Giampaulo Pozzo, who bought Granada CF and covered the club’s debts for the foreseeable future and in doing so, set up a parent/feeder partnership with the Andalucian team.

It ended up being a fabulous arrangement for both clubs, but is deemed somewhat controversial by a lot of both Italian and Spanish football clubs. The point being that Udinese hold the contracts of around 110 players, which they loan out to other teams in order to fund themselves and to give the loanees valuable experience.

Udinese don’t have a reserve or ‘B’ Team which they would have to fund themselves – instead they dissolve their reserves across the globe and reap the money in return. Thus, Granada CF took a whole flock of youngsters off Udinese’s hands meaning that the Italians’ pool of young but very experienced players in the coming seasons will be better equipped to enter the first team and quite a few will have La Liga experience.

Many Italian teams see this as unfair, but Udinese see it as simply giving their youngsters a chance in the best league in the world. In gaining this experience and off the back of the success which Granada have had recently, the value of many of the loanees will have escalated and Udinese could make an absolute killing in flogging them all off – you can’t have a squad of 110 after all.

Back in Spain, the whispers in the higher leagues are that it’s also unfair for Granada CF, a lowly and once almost extinct team, to have such a massive helping hand in getting to La Liga; a move which will see their income increase by around €20 million, most of which comes from TV revenue, and of course they won’t have a long bill of wages as all of the players are contracted to a club in a different country.

The folk of Granada couldn’t care less though. Not only are their team approaching financial stability, but they get to see the likes of Messi, CR7 and co. at Los Carmenes in the coming months and it is likely that many of the on-loan players will stick about for the coming season as it benefits both Granada CF for now, and also Udinese in the future.

But here’s the point; the squad at Grenada is full of loanees and youngsters. The consensus is that they will not last in La Liga and will soon be heading back down to the Segunda Division and when they do, all of their best and youngest players will depart back to Italy.

They will have a taste for top flight football, and many will be good enough for it. Clubs will come sniffing about and Udinese will be more than happy to sell them on. Should Granada CF remain in La Liga, the onus is there that for a relatively minor club, it could be very cost-effective to pack up in order to sell the club and relocate at a huge profit; they would have a Primera Division position after all.

Meanwhile, Pina has already taken over at Cadiz B and placed his dad at the helm, but whether he decided to jump a potentially sinking ship also remains to be seen.

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