Inter planned their budget for this season on a worst-case scenario in which they were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League at the group stage, at least according to the Nerazzurri’s chief executive Alessandro Antonello.
Antonio Conte’s side were disappointingly eliminated from Europe’s top club competition in December following a dismal performance in a group containing Real Madrid, Borussia Monchengladbach and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Many reports were quick to highlight the impact on Inter’s budget given the money they missed out upon by failing to progress in the competition but at Inter’s November shareholders meeting, Antonello told shareholder Federico De Mojana that this season’s budget was conservatively planned for a group stage exit.
“For the purposes of drawing up the budget, the club has adopted a prudent approach, adopting as an assumption an elimination from the Champions League following the group stage,” he explained to De Mojana as quoted by Italian news outlet Calcio e Finanza.
Antonello did not clarify whether this meant Inter had planned for finishing bottom of their group, thereby missing out on European football altogether in the New Year, or whether they had at least budgeted for Europa League football.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Inter, like all clubs, have had to limit their spending following great pandemic-caused losses.
The club made a loss of over €100 million and the impact of the loss is on full show this transfer window with it widely reported that Inter will not spend big and are instead looking to sell in order to reduce costs.
