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Porto Chairman Jorge Nuno Pinto Da Costa has held his club up as an example to UAE teams, when it comes to developing and selling players for profit in order to remain sustainable business models.
Speaking at the Sixth Dubai International Sports Conference this week, Da Costa accredited his "genuine mine for the discovery of new talents" as the reason why his side had been so successful on and off the pitch despite a budget of less than €100 million (Dh478.71 million) per year.
Having discovered and developed the likes of Victor Baia, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Jose Bosingwa and Raul Meireles as well as coaches, Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas Boas, Da Costa urged others to put similar emphasis on in-house development.
His thoughts came after Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino's revelation that 56 per cent of 700 European clubs run at a loss despite combined revenues increasing to €12-13 billion.
Worrying trend
Sixty four per cent of these revenues were going on transfer fees and wages marking a worrying trend of clubs spending beyond their means. Because of this Uefa is introducing financial fairplay rules capping losses at €45 million. Within this new enforced budgeting Infantino advised against clubs ignoring youth development and infrastructure.
Although tapping alternative revenue streams were discussed to overturn the downward spiral, Da Costa was adamant that youth development was a club's bread and butter.
"We are a contradiction. Porto is one of the first leading clubs to win European trophies without the budgets or incomes of other European clubs. Income is four times less than that of Barcelona. Every year we sell players but keep excellent results on the pitch. That's because of our grassroots development. We are still relying on the youth and young players trained in our club to maintain levels of excellence."
Gines Melendz Sotos director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation coach training centre added to this: "We haven't only invested in player development but coaching too in a collaboration between clubs and the Royal Spanish Football Federation, which has had a positive impact on the national team. In our 2008 and 2010 European and World Cup winning squads only one [Brazilian-born Marcos Senna] was trained outside Spain. The rest all came from local clubs."
