Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

The Boy

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Excellent article here from the The Athletic https://theathletic.co.uk/2689613/2...?article_source=search&search_query=barcalona

It's behind a paywall so for those that can't see the highlights are:

  • With sales of players like Firpo and Todibo they have raised 26.5M that's about 10% of what they need so far.
  • Pique has agreed to defer some of his salary to future seasons to help them through this one, they hope Busquets and Alba will do the same
  • A huge part of problem is the amortisation of previous bug money signings

The starkness of Barca’s situation can be seen from how dramatically their permitted squad limit cost has fallen. Back in 2019-20, they had the largest salary cap in La Liga at €671m. Last year it was €347m. The total for the new season has not yet been confirmed, but Catalan radio reported on Monday night that it will be in the region of €160m.

That means that the club would only be able to spend about 25 per cent of the total they had available just two seasons ago on salaries and transfer fees during 2021-22.

The amortisation of players signed by the previous board alone adds up to €144m already accounted for in the books for the coming season — including €20m for Philippe Coutinho, €27m for Antoine Griezmann and €24m for Ousmane Dembele.
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  • Messi and Barca seem to have reached a deal for him to stay but it can not be announced as they can not register him under the current problems
  • They can not register any of Depay, Aguero, Garcia and Royal without clearing 200M
  • Messi is on top of that, so even if he took a 90% paycut they currently cannot register him
  • There is talk of deferring his salary as well and guaranteeing him a massively well paid ambassadors job at the club in the future, but there are tx issues with this and Messi is nervous of the Spanish tax system for obvious reasons.
Whoever stays or leaves, Messi will likely also have to take a huge pay cut — maybe even something like 80 or 90 per cent — to stay at Barca. The club are looking at ways of making this up to him — such as deferring payment into the future, or guaranteeing him a well-paid ambassador role after his playing career is over. There are however serious tax implications for all these potential solutions, and Messi and his family have learned from experience not to cut corners with the Spanish tax man.
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Barca are fecked and really really fecked, Bartomeu has a lot to answer for, he has bankrupted the club, this could see them go under and so far LaLiga is sticking to it's guns, Preisdent of the league Javier Tebas is holding firm

“Barca are currently exceeding their salary cap,” Tebas said recently. “I hope they can include Messi’s wages, but to do so, they will have to cut somewhere else. We cannot make one rule for Messi, another for Haaland…”

He also pointed out that La Liga has survived the losses of Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo in recent years without hurting its sponsorship or broadcasting deals.
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We know about the debts reported to be 1.4 Billion, how do Barca get out of this. Either the league caves in, which seems very unlikely, they end contracts with half their first team or they just go bust.
 
gorky_utd said:
160m salary cap? Surely this is very small for a club like barca?
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Athletic describe it like this:
The squad cost limit is based on financial data which the clubs must submit to La Liga in the months before each summer transfer window opens. Factors which are considered include expected revenues for the coming season, but also profits and losses from previous years, overhead costs, non-player contracts, current savings, any existing debt repayments, investments and sources of external financing.

For accounting purposes, transfer fees are usually split or “amortised” over the term of a player’s contract, so a part of the amount still due for players signed in previous seasons is counted within this squad cost limit each year.
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It doesn't seem much but when you take the size of their debts into account, the hit they've had because of Covid and the huge amount of money going out each year on old transfers, it begins to make sense. It's the as much as LaLiga think they can spend without tipping over the edge. Even if Pjanic for example was to leave on a free transfer so they get his wages off the books, there's still 45M Euros of his transfer fee still to pay!
 
Overpaid the likes of Dembele, Coutinho and Griezmann besides Messi’s wages. I’m sure i missed out another one or two. Griezmann and De Jong are on insane wages as well though the latter is probably worth it. Umtiti is apparently on 200K up north!

We can give them 50M for Pedri ;)
 
They basically need to re-start the club over like Rangers but without the need to dissolve themselves into the lowest league. The short term solution should be to offload some high profile players like Pique, Lenglet, Coutinho, Griezman, Pjanic, & Dembele. Easier said than be done of course but Barca also have some advantages that (1) theyre the pride of Catalan & globally famous club, (2) playing in La Liga, a less competitive league than PL hence why yearly income from CL is almost guarranted, (3) can always go PLC to gain more money.
 
Messi is right on fearing the Spanish tax man. Their taxation rules are so byzantine down there that even we’ll meaning lawyers get it wrong. And with the strange construction that Laporta is attempting, Messi’s kids will end up paying a tax bill in 20 years.
 
As much as its the fault of the previous board, Messi is also culpable. €700mil over 4 years for Messi alone is utterly insane.

Maybe its time to say goodbye to Messi and put the good of the club before the player.
 
It's all of their own making but I don't see any scenario where they are allowed to go under. We've been here before. At the 11th hour some miraculous not-at-all-government-linked financier will appear with a massive 'loan' at unheard of interest rates.
 
From this it sounds like both parties would be happier if Messi left Barca.
 
11101 said:
We've been here before. At the 11th hour some miraculous not-at-all-government-linked financier will appear with a massive 'loan' at unheard of interest rates.
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It feels different though this time, especially after the EU ruling earlier this year that Barcelona and Real Madrid had to pay back money to the government after it breached state aid rules.

Seems like the walls are closing in on Barca and there's not a huge amount they can do. I think we'll see some big names moving on very cheaply as other clubs take advantage. Or they'll find themselves in the position where none of their new signings are allowed to play in any competition.
 
This can be a lesson that all clubs should learn from. Barcelona should have sold Messi for a few hundred million 2/3 years ago and they would be around 500/600m better off right now. I appreciate he’s a club legend and easily the second best player of his generation but what has that money won them? One league title and one cup.

I just hope United don’t make the same mistake with Sancho in 10 years. Take the £800m and reinvest it in the squad.
 
They constantly purchased dross like Andre Gomes, Lenglet, Semedo, Arthur, Pjanic, and players who would never fit like Griezmann, Dembele, Coutinho, Arda Turan (lol).

It's been a nightmare for years. The players are all so overpayed as well.
 
dinostar77 said:
As much as its the fault of the previous board, Messi is also culpable. €700mil over 4 years for Messi alone is utterly insane.

Maybe its time to say goodbye to Messi and put the good of the club before the player.
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How is Messi culpable? He didn’t offer the contract to himself.
 
They're such a badly run club they make us look good. They might have continued to win trophies for awhile due to Messi and a good previous generation of players but at least we aren't in financial ruins. All these fancy signings of Griezmann, Coutinho, Dembele and co should have been reigned in, if they were on the edge, financially.
 
Neymar said:
They constantly purchased dross like Andre Gomes, Lenglet, Semedo, Arthur, Pjanic, and players who would never fit like Griezmann, Dembele, Coutinho, Arda Turan (lol).

It's been a nightmare for years. The players are all so overpayed as well.
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What a list that is :lol: And I'm sure there are many more duds not listed.
 
Samid said:
How is Messi culpable? He didn’t offer the contract to himself.
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No but he knew the club deemed him irreplaceable, and used that to strongarm every last penny he could from the club. You wouldn't use that defense for Mino Raiola, for example.
 
Samid said:
How is Messi culpable? He didn’t offer the contract to himself.
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These people are getting tiresome popping up everywhere trying to blame Messi. Imagine if in your line of work your company said right we will pay you 1million per week, and you say err no thanks just pay me 100gbp I dont want you to have financial problems
 
Is this purely down to the salary cap that La Liga have? I didn’t even realise they had anything like that in place. For example, if Barca were in the Premier League, would they just be able to keep spending and spending?
 
red4ever 79 said:
These people are getting tiresome popping up everywhere trying to blame Messi. Imagine if in your line of work your company said right we will pay you 1million per week, and you say err no thanks just pay me 100gbp I dont want you to have financial problems
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How about watching your colleagues having to take pay cuts or lose their jobs just so you can make more money? I'd personally feel like a humongous twat in that situation.
 
I'd enquire about Busquets.

Will be 33 this season, but would still be brilliant. Offers a winning mentality. Could be like what Scholes was for us in his last seasons.
 
Pexbo said:
This can be a lesson that all clubs should learn from. Barcelona should have sold Messi for a few hundred million 2/3 years ago and they would be around 500/600m better off right now. I appreciate he’s a club legend and easily the second best player of his generation but what has that money won them? One league title and one cup.

I just hope United don’t make the same mistake with Sancho in 10 years. Take the £800m and reinvest it in the squad.
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We sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid didn't we? And Becks before that.

At least SAF is ruthless in identifying and shipping out players who no longer fits with his plan. Seeing how Ole has shipped out so many deadwood since I'm hoping it's the same for him.
 
Dan_F said:
Is this purely down to the salary cap that La Liga have? I didn’t even realise they had anything like that in place. For example, if Barca were in the Premier League, would they just be able to keep spending and spending?
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Down to the salary cap and the huge debt that they're drowning in.

But if they were in the premier league, they would still have to stick to UEFA's FFP rules, which is slightly different from the salary cap in Spain, but the premier league has no equivalent rule which could stop clubs registering players in their squads.
 
So is this for real then?

Are they actually genuinely fecked?

It's felt like something like this was coming for Real Madrid and especially Barcelona for years but they still seemed to be carrying on spending money like it was no issue.
 
They paid close to a quarter million for Griezmann and Dembele and those two idiots just cost them sponsorship revenue as well. Paid a fortune for Coutinho, loaned him to Bayern and watched him score against them in the champions league. The sabotage Bartomeu committed at that club is criminal incompetence.
 
From what I saw last night we should be in the ear of Pedri. He looks a ridiculously good player.
 
I dont get this at all. On one hand everyone says Barca are fkd. But on the other that they will never be because the state will just bail them out. Which is it? If they are in this much trouble then they should be selling players left right and center and there is no way they should be paying Messies contract. And yet they are. Its confusing.
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
So is this for real then?

Are they actually genuinely fecked?

It's felt like something like this was coming for Real Madrid and especially Barcelona for years but they still seemed to be carrying on spending money like it was no issue.
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Yeah Real looked a right mess, still not sure they're quite the force they were, but you can see they've held back in recent years, plus selling Ronaldo obviously helped. Few tips for Barca there.
 
Why are they continuing to sign players if they are this fecked? I mean they still look to be signing more dross to me too.
 
Wasn’t there potential damages or losses that the previous board members would be responsible for if it came to this point? I do remember reading something. Obviously there’s their fiduciary duty (though no one could have foreseen the revenue loss implications of the pandemic a few years ago) but I thought the club also had additional recourse against its board members. Oh well. Should have sold Messi last year.
 
If there is a fire sale, which is looking very likely, the very last people to go would be the likes of Pedri, Fati and Moriba.

They are more likely to try and push on Griezmann, Dembele and Coutinho first, but Couthinho and Dembele are injured and Griezmann has said he is not leaving. So if that doesn't work it's likely you could see ter Stegen and De Jong up for sale , there's plenty who would like to buy one of those two and I can't help but think that Messi will have to go. Imagine Grealish, Kane and Messi all signing for City!
 
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