Football is destroying itself

Hardly any other industry has done so badly in recent years as the world’s biggest sport. Instead of constantly inventing new competitions, football clubs should seek out viable business models. Otherwise the fans will run away.

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FC Barcelona is an enormously successful football club, but it has a budget like a gambler in the Wall Street boom at the turn of the millennium. For years, it hardly bothered anyone that the Catalans were pushing a threatening mountain of debt before them, because the successes seemed to prove them right. Barcelona has celebrated ten Spanish championships and four Champions League titles since 2005. The club has become a global brand, it shone beyond the football cosmos.