Gigi Becali is the boss in the Europa League: what he does with 5 million euros, no one does! Why Rangers

After 4-1 at home with RFS Riga and 1-0 away with PAOK Thessaloniki, we have the champion of Romania, FCSB, with maximum points in the Europa League group. And only Lazio, Lyon and Tottenham can be proud of such a thing after two stages played out of the eight scheduled in this phase of the competition, according to the new UEFA format!

Regardless of tastes, patron Gigi Becali has an important contribution to these performances. And beyond his meddling in the technical area, there is a special perspective that further complements his stature in the business of football and in the Europa League context.

ProSport presents you exclusively the conclusions of an analysis that proves why Gigi Becali is the boss, at least at this moment, in the Europa League. But what an impressive football business model he can set after Rangers – FCSB if the red-blues win in Scotland!

How did Gigi Becali end up in the Europa League

In our approach, we analyzed all the sums invested in player transfers by the teams in the Europa League group, calculating the money spent both in the mercato period before this season (summer 2004) and in the summer and winter of the previous season, 2023/2024. This is because we start from the premise that the current formations were built or strengthened, in most cases, during this time interval.

The bottom line? What Gigi Becali does with 5 million euros, no one does! After two rounds of the Europa League, FCSB has collected more points, with this total invested in player transfers, than most competitors. And this without taking into account the clubs from the top European championships (Italy, England, France, Spain, Germany) and those from the immediately lower value category, from the Belgium-Holland type leagues, which obviously invested much more than our champion .

20 times less money per player than Fenerbahce

More precisely, Gigi Becali spent 5.65 million euros, on the following moves made last season and this season, in the order of the highlighted transfer amounts (millions of euros):

• 2 – Birligea
• 1,3 – Stefanescu
• 0,6 – Alhassan, Ngesana
• 0.3 – D. Popa, Baeten
• 0.25 – M. Popescu
• 0.2 – Luis Phelipe
• 0.1 – Cattle

So, 9 footballers transferred, without all of them making a direct contribution to the course of the Europa League. But, with 5.65 million euros invested in this segment of the identification of footballers, FCSB has 6 points per day in the Europa League. How much have teams with fewer points invested in the hierarchy? Let’s start with the top of the list dedicated to the sums spent on players in the last two seasons (millions of euros):

• 108,7 – Fenerbahce (Galatasaray)
• 70.28 – Galatasaray (Turkey)
• 34.7 – Central Jutland (Denmark)
• 28.5 – Olympiakos (Greece)
• 26.65 – Beşiktaş (Turkey)
• 21.94 – Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)

The “trick” Becali: 33rd place in spending on footballers, 1st place today in the Europa League!

Of course, there are still 6 rounds to play in the Europa League, we are talking about intermediate conclusions, but they retain a major relevance at this moment, at least for the start of the season in the European cups.

Let’s continue with other teams in the Europa League group, each with fewer points achieved so far, but considerably more investment in players (millions of euros):

• 17.55 – Ferencvaros (Hungary)
• 12,05 – Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
• 11.35 – PAOK (Greece)
• 9.85 – Bodo Glimt (Norway)
• 8.73 – Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
• 8,2 – Malmo (Suedia)
• 6.6 – Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine)
• 6.34 – Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic)

With 5.65 million euros, FCSB is far below the limits of Turkey and Greece, as we saw above, but also very far from the spending on footballers of the Hungarian or Bulgarian neighbors through their top teams. As well as far below the good formations from Sweden, Norway or Israel.

In total, only three teams out of all 36 of the season’s Europa League have spent less than FCSB! But they have even fewer points than Gigi Becali’s team:

• 2.44 – Elfsborg (Sweden)
• 2.43 – Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
• 0.35 – RFS Rigas (Latvia)

Rangers victory? Take out the money on the players plus over 4 million euros profit!

A victory for the Romanian champions in Rangers – FCSB would bring the qualification of Gigi Becali’s team in the upper phase of the competition to a large extent. All details related to calculations for FCSB in the Europa League are available HERE. But beyond the points, we have huge financial success looming on the horizon!

Here is how the balance of financial gains in millions of euros looks for FCSB and Gigi Becali in the Europa League if Rangers – FCSB will mean a Romanian success:

• 4.31 – qualification in the Europa League group
• 1.35 – three wins (Rigas, PAOK, Rangers)
• 2 – packages already sold at Europa League home matches
• 0.3 – UEFA bonus for places 17-24 in the Europa League group
• 0,43 – market pool

In addition to the above amount, approximately €1 million will be earned from individual tickets sold at Europa League home games, beyond the packages. Plus 0.5 million euros, which we estimate to be minimal for the home match that FCSB would play in the play-off, the phase after the group, from which they would almost qualify after a win against Rangers.

That’s if we don’t take into account the real chances of the red-blues, with a good run to the end, to get the first 8 places in the group and, implicitly, directly to the final eight! With even more money from UEFA than in our financial simulation!

Income statement? Approximately 9.89 million euros for Gigi Becali! Strictly related to the money invested in strengthening the team over the last two seasons, 5.65 million euros, the businessman would “take it out” and be left with 4.24 million euros in profit! After only 3 matches played in the Europa League group!