The past few months have seen an increased number of European soccer clubs approach bankruptcy, unable to add to their mounting debts.
The rise of the number of teams in financial difficulties has accelerated and includes some of Europe's 'elite'. The major culprit in the rush of new troubles has been the collapse of various Television deals. Due in no small part to a crowded fixture list resulting in the inability of the fan to even follow the various competitions. UEFA's move to scrap the Champions League second round groups in favor of a straight knock out system was also partly due to their realization that fewer games played will alleviate some of the problems voiced by TV stations who have been unable to sell the many games scheduled on a pay-per-view basis.
The following is a list of the more recent cases and some of the reasons behind their troubles:
Italian club Lazio had been barred from making international transfers by FIFA because of non-payment of fees due for previous player transactions, however, there has been a one-year grace period granted with most of the monies due next summer. In order to come up with the cash required Lazio have been forced to sell two of their most priced assets recently in Alessandro Nesta and Hernan Crespo.
The collapse of the ITV Digital pay TV deal in the UK has left many clubs on the brink of bankruptcy and forced them to trim payroll and to accept less money for broadcast rights of their matches.
The Serie A season has already been postponed for two weeks because many clubs were left with no TV deal after they refused to accept less money for match rights. The clubs have since voted to set up a committee and control their TV deals as a collective as opposed to the individual team negotiation set-up.
Italian club Fiorentina was officially dissolved earlier in the summer and began a new life in the Italian fourth division. All players were released on a free transfer and the club started from scratch.
Previously successful Austrian club FC Tirol were demoted to the Austrian third division after failing to obtain a license to operate in the top division. Unable to meet the mandatory financial conditions they had to agree to begin anew.
There have been some instances where players have accepted pay cuts to help reduce team payrolls most notably at Inter Milan where Christian Vieri and the now departed Ronaldo reportedly accepted a 10 percent cut.