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Serbia & Montenegro: Red Star Belgrade pile up debt, seek sponsors [Tue Sep 20th, 2005]
Belgrade (Reuters) - Former European champions Red Star Belgrade are some 7.8 million euros (US$9.49 million) in debt and are looking for sponsors to bail them out, club officials were quoted as saying.
The Serbian club said financial results in the first half of 2005 were disappointing, with revenues at just 95.7 million dinars (US$1.4 million) and expenditures at 324.8 million dinars.
"Due to UEFA rules regarding refurbishment of the stadium, we have loans of 6.77 million euros," the Sportski Zurnal daily quoted Red Star president Dragan Stojkovic as saying. "There are debts to banks and debts to suppliers. The total debt is close to 7.8 million euros".
Stojkovic, who took over as Red Star president two months ago, said he was optimistic about ongoing talks with several "big firms on sponsorship deals", but would not disclose any details.
Red Star chief executive Sinisa Ciric said the second half of the year would be better "because of international matches, transfers, sponsorships and contributions of new members of the board".
Last season, Red Star lost the league title to bitter Belgrade rivals Partizan and the Cup to outsiders Zeleznik Belgrade. They made an undignified exit from Europe, losing 7-3 on aggregate to PSV Eindhoven in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League and then went down 6-1 to Zenit St Petersburg over two legs in the first round of the UEFA Cup.
In an effort to return the team to their glory days, Stojkovic wooed former Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga into taking up the post of head coach and signed a sponsorship deal with Japanese carmaker Toyota.
Red Star are fourth in the league five points behind leaders Partizan with a game in hand.
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