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Atlético Madrid May Be Forced To Sell Top Talent Due To Stadium Financing

La Liga side Atlético Madrid "could be forced into a fire-sale of the club's top talents due to the complex financing they have used to push through their controversial move to their new home for next season," according to Dermot Corrigan of the London INDEPENDENT. The club first talked about leaving its current Estadio Vicente Calderón for former athletics stadium La Peineta on the other side of the city "almost three decades ago," but the project was "held up at various times for financial, legal and logistical reasons" until Atlético CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marín and President Enrique Cerezo "involved both Chinese investors the Wanda Group and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to secure the funds required to speed up the move" for the start of the '17-18 season. The full details of this financing have not been made public, but it is understood that a €160M ($170M) loan to Slim's bank Inbursa "must be paid back quickly or the Mexican could gain control of the club's shares." Jose Luis Sánchez, a leading figure of fans group Señales de Humo, is "hugely concerned that the chaotic nature of Atlético's finances -- still beset by heavy debts -- means repayment of this loan will require the liquidation of the club's most saleable assets" -- such as €100M ($106.3M)-rated France forward Antoine Griezmann and €60M ($63.8M)-plus homegrown midfield pair Koke and Saúl Ñíguez as soon as next summer. Sánchez said, "Nobody had any problem with the Estadio Calderón. Its location is ideal, 20 minutes walk from Plaza Mayor or Puerto del Sol. It is perfectly communicated, surrounded by heavily populated barrios to feed their stands -- Carabanchel, Aluche, and the city center. There was no kind of problem. But the objective was something else -- to make money off the site, and use that money to fill the hole the board had generated themselves with their bad management and negligence." Through "recent months," Atlético and "friendly" local reporters have "regularly trumpeted progress at the new stadium." Most loudly when it was announced in early December that it would be called the "Wanda Metropolitano" -- confirming the sale of naming rights to the Chinese entertainment conglomerate that bought 20% of the club's shares for €45M in Jan. '15. The current "uncertainty" has coincided with the "worst run of results of coach Diego Simeone's five years in charge of Atlético," which won just one of five La Liga games either side of the Wanda Metropolitano announcement last autumn. The Calderón crowd has been "mostly quiet" about the stadium move, but a plan to "modernise" the club's badge has drawn "loud protest during games" -- including last Saturday's "underwhelming" 1-0 home win over Real Betis (INDEPENDENT, 1/18).

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