Inter Milan’s financial crisis affecting Achraf Hakimi’s transfer payment

This news is not as unexpected as one may think as the current situation in world football is a lot more complex than what was initially conceived. We have the case of Inter Milan that seem to be struggling in the financial sense due to the current world situation and that has resulted in a transfer deal not being fulfilled as a whole.

It has been discussed a lot in recent months that the Covid-19 situation has taken a huge toll on football as a whole and a lot of clubs are suffering because of that, to the point that some teams are even having issues to pay their players. This is something that has become quite common due to not having fans in the stadiums and losing that revenue.

A very recent example of that is the situation of Achraf Hakimi and his signing from Real Madrid to Inter Milan last summer. Based on recent reports, the Italian club had to reschedule the date to pay Real Madrid for Hakimi because Inter Milan are currently struggling from a financial perspective in part because of the situation with the Covid-19. This is something that has been a running issue at Inter Milan because they are yet to pay their players’ salaries in the last month or so, but the board has promised to pay them in the middle of February, which is something worth taking into account. Many different clubs, some bigger, some smaller, have had similar struggles in recent months.

For sake of information, another component which is affecting Inter Milan’s financial situation is the restrictions imposed by the Chinese Government on Chinese citizens of not investing overseas unless in strategic projects. Inter Milan and the football industry clearly do not follow under strategic investment and so the Mr. Zhang, chairman of Inter Milan, is forced of not injecting further liquidity in the company.

However, if these restrictions of the Chinese Government are partially affecting Inter Milan, several other teams not owned by Chinese citizens are still struggling for survival. This is another side of the modern game that is most likely going to be normalized as there are many different clubs still adjusting to this current state of affairs and the fact that there is no clear idea of when they are going to be allowed to have fans back in the stadiums. Thankfully, Inter Milan is in a position to pay their debts in the next couple of months. But this is something other clubs cannot afford, sadly enough.