FC Barcelona cannot pay its stars at the moment. Normally, the professionals around Lionel Messi (33) would receive the second of their three salary payments per season in January. But the transfer is canceled this month. “It’s a bankruptcy case,” admitted interim club president Carles Tusquets, 69. Although the measure has been agreed with the players who should get the money back over the next four seasons, it is still another indication of how badly the proud club from Catalonia is doing. The 26-time Spanish champions are about to go bankrupt.
A new beginning should actually be the presidential election on Sunday. Joan Laporta (58), Victor Font (48) and Toni Freixa (52) took over to succeed Josep Maria Bartomeu (57). With his resignation in October, he had anticipated a vote of no confidence by the members. But the election was postponed to March 7th due to the curfew in Barcelona.
The club is still in the air, the numbers remain alarming: at least 800 million euros in debts are depressing the club, candidate Font even speaks of one billion euros. About half of the debt is due in the short term. And due to the corona crisis, too little fresh money is coming in. In the current season, about 300 million euros in sales are missing, which will be 800 million euros instead of the planned 1.1 billion euros. Candidate Laporta calculated that the club made a loss of about 100 million euros in the preseason.
In comparison: FC Bayern’s turnover is around 750 million euros.
The professionals in particular notice that Barça is clammy. In addition to the salary deferral in January, the team agreed to a 40 percent wage waiver. The club will save a total of 122 million euros. In the first Corona phase in spring 2020, the players meanwhile waived 70 percent of their salary.
Top earners were sent away
In order to reduce the budget of 391 million, top earners were sent away at cheap prices in the summer. With Luis Suárez (33) to Atlético, Arturo Vidal (33) to Inter and Rafinha (27) to PSG, three superstars went free, Ivan Rakitic (32) moved to Sevilla FC for 1.5 million. Súarez alone earned 12 million euros net.
In addition, Barça tweaked its balance sheet by swapping players. While the 72 million euros transfer fee that Juventus Turin paid for midfielder Arthur (24) is posted as revenue immediately, the 60 million euros that Juve paid for Miralem Pjanic (30) can be written off as expenses over Pjanic’s four years of contract will. That makes a balance sheet plus of 57 million euros for this year. De facto, only 12 million euros remain for the exchange. Something similar happened in the preseason when keeper Jasper Cillessen (31 / for 35 million from Valencia) was exchanged for Neto (31 / for 26 million from Valencia).
Barça was only able to finance the 120 million euros for Antoine Griezmann’s (29) release clause in 2019 with dubious bank loans. In November, the club had to ask the Ministry of Finance for a deferment of payments for a back tax of 23 million.
The Barça crash started when Neymar, 28, left. For the superstar, they received 222 million euros from PSG. Candidate Font says to SPORT BILD: “Since Neymar’s departure there has been no sporting concept and a number of bad decisions at the expense of athletic competitiveness and finances.” Ousmane Dembélé (23) came from BVB, Philippe, for up to 150 million euros Coutinho (28) for up to 160 million euros from Liverpool and Griezmann from Atlético. In the past three years, Barça spent € 980m on transfers. Contracts with service providers such as Gerard Pique (33), Marc-André ter Stegen (28) or Frenkie de Jong (23) were extended at great cost. “One of the biggest mistakes was wage inflation,” says Font. And further: “They went to the limit so that the club gets into trouble even with small problems.”
Reserves? Nothing!
Bad luck for Barça: The Corona crisis also takes revenge for a change in strategy. In the years 2015 to 2021, the club wanted to become more independent of TV revenues. The focus was on ticket sales and the marketing of merchandise and trademark rights. Barça now manages both themselves. Success: In the 18/19 season, the club earned 159.2 million euros from home games. Number one worldwide! Barças Museum is the most visited in all of Catalonia. But it was precisely this income that the corona virus ate first …
The hangover around the Barça boss also affects Messi’s future. He has to be convinced of the sporting project, otherwise he would push off his departure like in August. This could save the club 100 million euros in salaries. But even that would not be enough to finance the 800 million euro modernization of Camp Nou.
One thing is clear in the search for solutions: the club will continue to belong to the current 116,469 Barça members. That is what all the presidential candidates promised. A conversion from an association into a company and the entry of investors is therefore excluded.
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