Today I read an interview with Borussia D board member. There, he said that they could have sold Lewandowski for 25-30 million euros, but they kept him, and made 50 million euros. He is likely taking into account Borussia D's success in CL. In this light, I ask just how much Benfica and Porto are actually losing by operating this way? If you consider the fact that with some of those players, they could challenge CL, they surely are also losing money. Especially Benfica, who have largely been poor in CL.
Because of all of these ins and outs, both Porto and Benfica are inconsistent in Europe. Other teams like Spurs, Athletic Bilbao also make profit by selling their players, not sure if that is a good strategy. You'd like to think that after these clubs have earned hundreds of millions, they'd be more willing to hold on to their stars, but no.
One other note, I wonder what is the fraction that Benfica and Porto end up getting out of these transfers. They don't have 100% ownership in a lot of them, based on reports. And they also buy a lot of players with sell on clauses.
The biggest problem for Benfica and Porto is the market pool dimension of the portuguese league and the debt they have for decades of poor management.
Benfica has a stadium with 65.000 seats, an average attendance over 50.000 but the sponsors and the TV revenue is ridicolous compared to a team that in England will play just to not be relegated.
Benfica was until 5 years ago getting less than 10m€ season for their TV rights... now and because of Portugal beeing so small for a team like Benfica they decided they would negotiate their TV rights by themselves and have their own TV, BenficaTV that is actually the 1st TV from a club that transmits all their home games live... Now Benfica is getting aroun 30m€ per season with 400.000 subscribers of theyr payed TV. They want to get at least 40m€ next season, that's a great upgrade there.
About keeping the star players the problem is also playing in the portuguese league, a lot of them want to go just by the fact they want to play the english premier or la liga... and also the wages they start asking, Benfica and Porto pay at the most 3m€ per season to their stars, that's what a B team palyer receives at other top teams.
And yes, when they sell the players they don´t get 100% of the money all the time... but usually almost all the money, depends on the player really but they usually have a great % on the players they know that will provide a great revenue.
About keeping the players longer and try to make greater campaigns it's not only about the champions league, it's way more important for Benfica and Porto fans to assure that your team will be capable of also beating the other team in the portuguese competitions.
But for instante 3 seasons ago Benfica lost in a week the UEfa cup, the portuguese league and the portuguese cup... it was a traumatic experience so they kept all the players for the next season... In the next season they won the treble, portuguese league, supercup, league cup and portuguese cup and went to Europa League final, but they also failed in champions league by getting behind Olympiacos and PSG
