Cerezo Osaka president Minoru Tamada received an interview by South Korean website Footballist and talked about the club finance, new stadium, and their policy on foreign player.

In the article, Tamada firstly explains about the financial change the league’s contract with DAZN (or so called “DAZN money”) brought. Not just the prize money for winning the J1 League being almost doubled, huge money will be distributed to top ranked clubs in the league for such purposes as improving the level of Japanese football, youth development, and improving the football environment.

This will contribute to increasing the financial base of the clubs and some of them may try to sign a big name. Vissel Kobe may be seen as one of those clubs but in the case of Vissel Kobe, they have been supported by a big company, Rakuten, which isn’t afraid to spend a lot of money under the direction of its founder Hiroshi Mikitani. But not every club has such a generous “parent company,” so it’s important to have a rule which enables top ranked clubs to receive more money, Tamada explains.

Tamada says such a rule is important “for a club like us,” but Cerezo also have a big sponsor, if not a parent company, which is Yanmar. According to him, they need 6.6 billion yen to complete the refurbishment of Kincho Stadium, and more than a half of the money will be paid by Yanmar. The rest will be collected through donation and government subsidy (both national and local).

With the help of Yanmar, which has been managed by the Yamaokas since its foundation in 1912, Cerezo paid a lot of money to re-sign Hiroshi Kiyotake last year. Also, in the past, Cerezo signed World Cup star Diego Forlan in 2014. But they are unlikely to spend a lot of money to sign a foreign star player again, at least for a while, the club president says. He doesn’t necessarily deny a future possibility but “actual ability is more important than marketing,” he says in conclusion.