Trabzonspor highlights commercial returns from Salah transfer

Trabzonspor has highlighted a new financial development following Salah’s transfer, but has not linked the deal’s commercial returns to a fall in its net debt. In a statement, the club said a claim for compensation related to expropriation, valued at 4.9 billion Turkish lira, had been deducted from total debt when calculating net debt. It added that the calculation included amounts owed for transfers, including sums due to be paid later.

The announcement comes several months after Mohamed Salah’s transfer. The statement gave no figures establishing that revenue associated with the deal had reduced net debt, and those proceeds were not presented as a direct cause of any change in it.

The transfer’s commercial returns had, however, been discussed earlier by Trabzonspor president Ertuğrul Doğan. He said the club had generated around 550 million Turkish lira in season-ticket sales in the three days after the signing was announced, excluding shirt sales. Doğan had also said that season-ticket and shirt revenue covered more than half the transfer’s annual cost, enabling the club to recoup a large part of its investment quickly.

Salah joined Trabzonspor on a free transfer after his contract with Liverpool ended and signed a two-year deal, with an annual salary of 17 million euros guaranteed. The financial impact of the deal therefore concerns wages and commercial revenue, rather than a transfer fee payable for his arrival. The president had also said that season-ticket sales had covered around 70% of Salah’s annual salary in advance.