It seems that Barcelona are approaching the end of the era of the sacred cows, to fix the financial situation of the club in the next period.
The Catalan team is going through a huge financial crisis, due to the presence of many debts on the shoulders of the club in addition to the high salary, which made it necessary to sell some assets of the club and the activation of economic levers to find financial liquidity in the club.
In his speech to the general assembly of the club, vice president Edward Romeo addressed a veiled message to the sacred cows of Barcelona (Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba) without explicitly mentioning them, as well as some players who have contracts with very high salaries such as Ter Stegen and Frenkie de Jong.
What did Matteo Alemani say about the sacred cows?
While Matteo Alemani, Barcelona’s sporting director, said in the General Assembly, as highlighted by the Spanish newspaper “AS”: “Without hesitation, when we arrived, we found that the prices of salaries in general were higher than the price of market”.
He added: “The salaries were ahead of us and hindered our ability to spend in the transfer market and register players, and it had a very serious impact due to the laws of the League.”
He continued: “Last season we were exposed to Al-Liha’s 1-4 rule, it is true that 75% of these salaries have been consumed and we continue the philosophy of adjusting salaries to fit the Financial Fair Play Act.”
And he added: “These players are impossible to sell and tax otherwise.”
“It’s the salaries that don’t match the market and the goal is to make them disappear,” said Alemani.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta admitted that, despite negotiating these high salaries with the players, no deal was reached, which ultimately forced the board of directors to guarantee € 10 million to sign Jules Conde.
Laporta said: “Mattio Alemani was one of the guarantors. With the 867 million euros we raised from the levers, LaLiga told us that Conde’s registration was not enough, so we had to find a guarantor”.
