Performance bonuses and special clauses drive up staff costs | OneFootball

On Wednesday, FC Porto released the Report and Accounts for the first half of 2025/26, indicating a total profit of 1.9 million euros, while for the SAD shareholders the result was a negative 900 thousand euros. This difference raised questions, but for the purposes of accounting for equity and its evolution, the positive result is considered. Essentially, the €1.9M corresponds to the profits obtained by all the group’s companies (Porto Seguro, Porto Comercial, StadCo, FC Porto Media, among others), and the main reason for the discrepancy between the positive €1.9M and the negative 900 thousand euros is related to the 30% of StadCo’s results that do not revert to SAD shareholders, being attributed directly to the investor Ithaka. Thus, the change in equity between June and December is essentially due to the result of this semester.

Another topic that has fueled comments, especially on social media, is the 34% increase in personnel costs, which rose from €38.2M to €51.2M compared to the same period of the previous season. As stated in the report sent to the CMVM, there was a significant increase – €5M – in the remuneration of athletes and the technical team, resulting from investment in the main squad with the aim of competing for the title. This amount includes not only salaries but also performance bonuses. It should be noted that this does not refer to payments for finishing third or qualifying for the Europa League, but to bonuses for set-piece goals, goals in the first/last 15 minutes, comebacks, and “clean sheets,” a system implemented by Francesco Farioli.

As for staff remuneration, there was an increase of two million euros, with half of this amount resulting from the transfer of the club’s Shared Services to SAD. Functions such as accounting and human resources no longer appear as “external service provision” and are now directly included in personnel costs. The other million euros of the increase is associated with higher costs for the technical staff, related to women’s football and youth development.

Among other costs, the most notable is the amount of 5.5 million euros paid in compensation, compared to 900 thousand euros in the same period last year. This amount is largely due to the termination of the contract of Martín Anselmi and his technical team. Compensation was also included for Grujic and Fábio Cardoso, as well as the former sporting director, Andoni Zubizarreta, among other SAD staff members. The largest amount corresponds to the former technical team, made up of six members. In the case of Grujic and Fábio Cardoso, FC Porto paid the remainder of their contracts, but managed to save about half of the amount they would have had to bear if they had stayed at the club, due to deductions related to taxes and Social Security.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.