Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

[cyberman]

Barca fans are openly questioning Xavi right now actually. If they win nothing come the end of the season Laporta is going to be in trouble

There’s rumbling but I don’t see that being worth selling future tv revenue to solely save Xavi. The justification for reckless spending implied a lot more than that. Just go out and get a better manager. Was that the Armageddon everybody predicted for not being competitive? A manager being questioned? Where’s all the fans will not stand for this examples? Right now they should be at their most emotional and it’s not really there.
Every manager should be questioned if they don’t make the CL knock out stages. That’s being a manager.
See, there’s even a slight change in narrative within your post trying to justify it. It went from competitive to being in trouble if they don’t win anything.

 

[sglowrider]

1. Change your president every few years
2. Vote for the one that promises the most transfers or whatever
3. New president focuses on short-term decisions to gain popularity and win the next vote
4. Watch your club going broke step by step
5. *surprised pikachu face*

Aren't the 1st three points more likely with a fan-based club?

 

[TheGame]

 

[giorno]

There’s rumbling but I don’t see that being worth selling future tv revenue to solely save Xavi. The justification for reckless spending implied a lot more than that. Just go out and get a better manager. Was that the Armageddon everybody predicted for not being competitive? A manager being questioned? Where’s all the fans will not stand for this examples? Right now they should be at their most emotional and it’s not really there.
Every manager should be questioned if they don’t make the CL knock out stages. That’s being a manager.
See, there’s even a slight change in narrative within your post trying to justify it. It went from competitive to being in trouble if they don’t win anything.

Selling the fans on a slow rebuild would caused financial issues as well, namely in the form of an half empty stadium and limited merchandise sales. At the end of the day the summer brought the enthusiasm back - it was as much about winning back the fans as anything.

And yes, of course they have to win something now. Only way to make up for going out at the group stage

 

[Lyng]

 

[JuveGER]

What is the size difference of the pot if you don’t get out of the group versus getting knocked out at the R16 or QF stage? Surely it can’t be that much?

It's interesting that people make so many bold statements about the financial impact either way without looking at the figures.

Prize money:
Round 16: €9.6m
Quarterfinals: €10.6m

You also get money for wins/draws in the group stages. Not qualifying means you earned fewer points earning you less money. If a draw against Inter (instead of a win) is what keeps Barca out of the knockout stages, this adds another €1.9m in prize money lost (Prize money for a win minus prize money for a draw).

So, overall Barca loose €22.1m in prize money from the Champions League.

Market pool:
The money is based on a country's market pool and the respective share of games of a club in terms of total games played by clubs from one association in the competition. My quick search only found Spain's figures for 20/21, which was around €60m. But that should be good enough. Given that all Spanish teams usually go far in the competition, it would not be prudent to expect to make more than 25% of the market pool (i.e. €15m). Ironically, this year Barca may not be the only Spanish club that fails to make the knock out stages. Since most matches are played in the group stages and since it appears that few Spanish teams will make the knockout stages, Barca won't loose much money here. If only Real makes the knockout stages but goes on to the finals, Barca will make around €3.4m less.

So, income from market pool and prize money combined will underperform by around €25.6m assuming that Barca budgeted a quarterfinal run and playing 25% of the total games played by Spanish teams in the competition.

Obviously, there will be other losses like incentives from sponsors, but this will be somewhat offset by lower incentives to players.

The €25.6m will be reduced by any money earned in the EL. Making the semi-finals will yield €6.3m in prize money, for example plus whatever the market pool is in the EL.

I did not account for ticket income. Obviously, you can ask for higher ticket prizes in the CL. On the other hand, there are potentially more games in EL and the name value of opponents could be quite high this season with lots of famous teams poised to play the EL ().

Overall, missing out on the Champions League knockout phase makes a dent, but should not create a hole that is beyond filling. It's more critical to make the CL than to go far.

 

[BayernFan87]

Aren't the 1st three points more likely with a fan-based club?

Yeah I guess so.
But these presidential races at Barca every few years really seem like political races. And I can't think of another fan based club where that is the case.

 

[Morty_]

Well in his defense playing for Barcelona in LaLiga is still way more glamorous than playing any day in the bundesliga, plus his wife got her Social Media accounts boosted exactly how she wanted it. He'll live, especially because he and his family love their new life in the city.

Barca's board and the coaching team are 100% responsible for the new disgrace. As long as they don't do a clear cut with the old generation captains, the embarrassment will keep on going. They are the face of every Champions League disgrace starting with the loss in Rome. Club legends or not, if you are not good enough for today's ambitions, you need to step down or be stepped down by your superiours. Thankfully players like Puyol, Xavi and Iniesta knew extactly when to leave with their heads high up. They left as legends and will be always welcomed back. Pique, Alba, Busquets and Roberto will also leave as legendary players of course, but also as players which dragged the club down with them. Their farewell will be much cooler than of those 3 players I mentioned.

Pique always said he will leave when he isn't needed and he isn't good enough anymore. Well yesterday the whole world saw he isn't anymore. My 90 year old, half blind grandmother asked what he was doing on the pitch. He played like a third devision player. Let's see if he has enough self reflection to see it and steps down on his own. He doesn't need any money from the rest of his contract, he has businesses all over the world. Now we'll see if it was just empty talk for his fans.

Alba prooved since the disgrace against Liverpool, that he hasn't got the mentality anymore to keep on playing for Barca's ambition. A guy who cries during the halftime pause and an overall score of 3:1 mustn't put this shirt on anymore. In nearly every other big game from this onwards, he prooved it again and again. Of course he has here and there acceptable games, but this is not the ambition of barca having such a full back, who also focuses more on the referee and acting, instead on helping the forward line to score. Especially when his best buddy Messi left, it feels like he is isolated on the pitch. Even though he mostly stopped playing this season, him still sitting on the bench and being a part of the squad hinders development in my eyes.

Sergi Roberto was always an okayish player, who had the La-Masia advantage and a strong squad to make up for his faults. He just surfed the massive wave and on top, his winning goal against PSG gave him a new, massivly overpaid contract. After his injuries, he got completely useless for the club. Even as a substitute. While he does sometimes productive things in front, his defending skills are horrific. Arms behind his back and 3 meter safety distance from his opponent. Every attacking 5th devision player can give a good pass inside the penalty area, if his defender is Roberto, because he just watches them from a save distance.

Busquets is the least worse of them. He still plays good in the majority of his games and is important to build barca's game from the defense. BUT he just hasn't got the speed anymore against a strong press. In most of the big matches against top opponents, he is always at risk to lose the ball against a good pressing and gift the opponent a strong counter attack, which happened again yesterday and killed off any hopes as Inter used his mistake to take the 2:1 lead (Garcia defended in this situation horribly as well of course). You can't start a player, if you fear he can do game losing mistakes at any point of the game, no matter how good he is playing. Especially if you have a young and achievement hungry player like Frenkie on the bench. This is completely on Xavi. He just sees the good side of Busquets and hopes, this time he won't do any grave mistakes and again, the hope was shattered.

As long as those 4 players are still playing/sitting on the bench, blocking spots for young talents and good transfers, barca will not develop. Only with a clear cut, we can start again. This is my opinion.

Yeah, well, he didn't mean it, just something he said at the time to get people off his back.

 

[WeePat]

Selling the fans on a slow rebuild would caused financial issues as well, namely in the form of an half empty stadium and limited merchandise sales. At the end of the day the summer brought the enthusiasm back - it was as much about winning back the fans as anything.

And yes, of course they have to win something now. Only way to make up for going out at the group stage

That says a lot about Barca fans then if that's true, if a bit of a rebuild where they're still a top 4-5 team in Spain, is too much of an embarrassment to go watch your team.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

They’re basically out of Europe at the group stage again. I’m still sitting here waiting for the mass protests, the board resigning, Xavi looking for a new job etc but it’s just…nothing.

I'm not sure Zidane would have survived a group stage exit in 20/21 and that was with a squad everyone knew had some serious holes in it.

 

[sglowrider]

Yeah I guess so.
But these presidential races at Barca every few years really seem like political races. And I can't think of another fan based club where that is the case.

I think its a natural progression/slide once you have people with the wrong reasons or competence for the job. We live in a populist era -- so it won't be any different to the presidents of football clubs.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

Laporta was elected because he previously did a good job as president in somewhat similar circumstances.

 

[carvajal]

I still think they are a good team, with a better future than many predicted.
Like in Munich yesterday they collapsed a bit when they conceded a goal. They lack the time and experience to overcome such situations.
Although they are a good team, they lack self-criticism, especially in Xavi.
They need to get rid of Piqué and Alba, who although they don't have as much weight on the pitch still influence the dressing room, and Busquets, who although he is at a better level should leave his position to De Jong.
I wonder what's going on with Ansu Fati, is he not playing because of bad form? In theory he is already recovered

 

[sglowrider]

Barcelona’s financial mess: Champions League exit, more levers, Coutinho debt

The accounts published last week also show that Barca still owe transfer fees dating back years, including for players who are no longer at the club such as Philippe Coutinho, Miralem Pjanic and Neto Moura. More than €100m of this total is due to be paid for these players in the next seven months.

the money spent to bring in a proven star like Lewandowski last summer was a good investment. His arrival was widely celebrated even as Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported that the club has committed to pay him about €100 million in total over the next four seasons, going well past his 37th birthday.

“Last season the impact of being eliminated in the Champions League groups was €12million,” Romeu said last week. “We were counting on income we didn’t get, but we also saved costs. This year, we are aiming to win La Liga and reach the Champions League quarter-finals.”

Even if they had progressed further in the Champions League, their broadcast revenue was still predicted to fall by six per cent this year to €236m because from this season, they have started to pay Sixth Street 25 per cent of their La Liga TV income — €41m per year. It is proof that, whether or not the levers actually pay off, they will have to be paid back.

As LVG would described S&M -- financially strapped down with leather braids, like a gimp awaiting some nasty backdoor action..

 

[giorno]

That says a lot about Barca fans then if that's true, if a bit of a rebuild where they're still a top 4-5 team in Spain, is too much of an embarrassment to go watch your team.

Average attendance last season, post covid, barely broke 60k. This season they average 80k

 

[mshnsh]

You could argue state owned clubs like City have smashed through the ceiling. They are a different monster entirely. Has there ever been a more dominant side than this City team week in week out?

They would be a match for even Pep’s great Barcelona team. I believe defensively they are better and score more goals quite possibly too on average.

I struggle to see any side in history beating them over a calendar year. They might be all things considered the best side we’ve seen in football even with no CL’s to their name so far. That competition is a lottery in the late rounds.

You are forgetting that Pep had a peak Messi who would be the difference between the two sides even with Haaland playing for City.

 

[mshnsh]

Why are Real Madrid fans desperate for Barcelona to qualify?

More like not wanting to get their hopes too high.

 

[giorno]

More like not wanting to get their hopes too high.

My hopes are highest now!

 

[WeePat]

Average attendance last season, post covid, barely broke 60k. This season they average 80k

That makes them look very bad.

 

[Dave Smith]

Barcelona’s financial mess: Champions League exit, more levers, Coutinho debt














As LVG would described S&M -- financially strapped down with leather braids, like a gimp awaiting some nasty backdoor action..

Just read this. Very interesting stuff. Things I got from it;

Next season Barca have to play away from Camp Nou at a 55k stadium which will hit their finances further, while the debt for the club on the stadium redevelopment adds €50m pa.

They have four players owed €40m+ on their books who contrary to reports, are struggling to shift as they would have got rid of them if they could've. The four are Pique, Biscuit, MTS and FDJ..

They reported last years losses for going out of the EL at €12m but this is felt to be a minimum figure. This season as they were predicted to go to the QF means it will likely be higher.

Whilst they hope to be rid of the four €40m+ plus players in the next couple of years. They will then be liable for €38m for Lewa at 36 y.o. Additionally, Pedro, Gavi, Fatigue etc will all be due extensions.

They need to raise €80m+ revenues from transfers. This excludes the €20m they got for Griezmann.

They still have over €100m of liabilities on player purchases.

They will pull more levers. However, they're struggling to find someone for the €300m they want for BLM.

Predicted losses without the levers was due to be €100m (approx) last year and €200m (approx) for this year. Question is if those losses are only covered by levers, which also need to be paid back, what happens when they cannot either pull more levers or run out?

Sounds like a house of cards over there. Literally sounds like they will have to continue to sell large parts of the club off and then hope the revenue and performance on the pitch significantly increases, whilst rasing €80m+ profit in the transfer market.

 

[cyberman]

Average attendance last season, post covid, barely broke 60k. This season they average 80k

Barca have a new deal this year of 50 percent off of tickets for Catalonia residents though. I remember this because of the hype of Laporta being one with the fans while they burned the clubs finances down. Which is weird because I thought they had this earlier but I’m guessing it’s fully implemented now.
None of this is worth it. Even the more merchandise sold falls down since they sold 50 percent of it and shouldn’t even come into the equation for being worth a risk.

 

[Ish]

It's interesting that people make so many bold statements about the financial impact either way without looking at the figures.

Prize money:
Round 16: €9.6m
Quarterfinals: €10.6m

You also get money for wins/draws in the group stages. Not qualifying means you earned fewer points earning you less money. If a draw against Inter (instead of a win) is what keeps Barca out of the knockout stages, this adds another €1.9m in prize money lost (Prize money for a win minus prize money for a draw).

So, overall Barca loose €22.1m in prize money from the Champions League.

Market pool:
The money is based on a country's market pool and the respective share of games of a club in terms of total games played by clubs from one association in the competition. My quick search only found Spain's figures for 20/21, which was around €60m. But that should be good enough. Given that all Spanish teams usually go far in the competition, it would not be prudent to expect to make more than 25% of the market pool (i.e. €15m). Ironically, this year Barca may not be the only Spanish club that fails to make the knock out stages. Since most matches are played in the group stages and since it appears that few Spanish teams will make the knockout stages, Barca won't loose much money here. If only Real makes the knockout stages but goes on to the finals, Barca will make around €3.4m less.

So, income from market pool and prize money combined will underperform by around €25.6m assuming that Barca budgeted a quarterfinal run and playing 25% of the total games played by Spanish teams in the competition.

Obviously, there will be other losses like incentives from sponsors, but this will be somewhat offset by lower incentives to players.

The €25.6m will be reduced by any money earned in the EL. Making the semi-finals will yield €6.3m in prize money, for example plus whatever the market pool is in the EL.

I did not account for ticket income. Obviously, you can ask for higher ticket prizes in the CL. On the other hand, there are potentially more games in EL and the name value of opponents could be quite high this season with lots of famous teams poised to play the EL ().

Overall, missing out on the Champions League knockout phase makes a dent, but should not create a hole that is beyond filling. It's more critical to make the CL than to go far.

Aye yeah i had a hunch about the "financial impact" being minimal based on previous postings and knowledge of the competition. I think even things like "winning" the premier league, versus finishing second, is like minimal differences financially, iirc.

Obviously constantly winning and competing brings in different marketing and other revenue over the medium and long term, but that's another discussion IMO.

 

[Alonzo]

Ahhhh my doctor says i need to watch my intake but the salt in this thread from barca fans is too tasty to ignore

 

[CruyffMaradonaMessi]

Yes, yes, yes, Barça is going to collapse because of a CL (corrupt tinpot tournament soon to be replaced by the Super League) group exit.

Also it is the end of the world that the club has its worst crisis in 20+ years and has not won any trophies for just 1 season in a row (2021-22) while numerous European top clubs can brag about 1 league title in 33 years (Liverpool), 5 seasons without any trophies won in a row, 15 years since a CL win, 10 years since a league win (Man Utd), Juventus being a joke in Europe for the past almost 30 years with no European trophies won, AC Milan with 2 scudetti wins in 20 years and 1 CL win in 20 years and the list goes on and on.

Barça on the other hand is coming of 15 years (2004-2019) of insane dominance (10 La Liga, 7 Copa del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 4 CL, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups titles), orgasmic football and legendary teams and players that will always be remembered and admired widely by football fans across the world, the GOAT winning more individual trophies than anyone else while representing the club etc.

The club is in a transitional season coming out of the worst institutional and sporting crisis in 20 + years. The GOAT leaving in August 2021 as well. Xavi a managerial novice. Laporta needing to clean the gigantic mess that Bartomeu left etc.

All in all this season is far from lost. La Liga is winnable and so is the Cops del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and likely the Europa League which I would rather win than going out in the knockout CL stages as we were very unlikely to win the CL anyway. The monetary loss from a CL group stage exit are widely overblown as already showcased in this thread by another user. This is more about prestige which is a joke anyway as we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years anyway so this does not change anything in this regard.

Also if not for the robbery last week and tons of injuries, we would most likely have qualified. Inter are not a better team but the CL was never about the best team winning anyway. Still a possibility to qualify although a remote one.

Barça will be back winning and competing for the biggest trophies. Just a question of when and not if. Could be this season already. Laporta has already done a tremendous job changing the squad for the better just within 1 year. The squad is young with tons of highly rated young players and talents with many more coming through.
New stadium coming within a few years, most deadwood gone next summer, wage bill under control, still a massive pull as a club etc. There are many reasons to be positive.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

How can Barcelona be renovating and upgrading their stadium in a project worth £1.3 billion if they are broke?

 

[CruyffMaradonaMessi]

How can Barcelona be renovating and upgrading their stadium in a project worth £1.3 billion if they are broke?

The club is nowhere close to being broke. Nor will that ever occur. If it did, the club would be sold partially or fully to some billionaire/sheikh/state and become a toy of said person/entity like 99% of all clubs in modern football.

If Xavi does not win the league this season or any other trophies and the play does not improve, Laporta should do everything in his power to get Pep back. His contract runs out next season and I think that persistent reports in England have stated that he does not want to renew. It is worth a try.

if shit hits the fan in the next few weeks, Tuchel is available and he is a huge Barça fan.

 

[sglowrider]

Just read this. Very interesting stuff. Things I got from it;

Next season Barca have to play away from Camp Nou at a 55k stadium which will hit their finances further, while the debt for the club on the stadium redevelopment adds €50m pa.

They have four players owed €40m+ on their books who contrary to reports, are struggling to shift as they would have got rid of them if they could've. The four are Pique, Biscuit, MTS and FDJ..

They reported last years losses for going out of the EL at €12m but this is felt to be a minimum figure. This season as they were predicted to go to the QF means it will likely be higher.

Whilst they hope to be rid of the four €40m+ plus players in the next couple of years. They will then be liable for €38m for Lewa at 36 y.o. Additionally, Pedro, Gavi, Fatigue etc will all be due extensions.

They need to raise €80m+ revenues from transfers. This excludes the €20m they got for Griezmann.

They still have over €100m of liabilities on player purchases.

They will pull more levers. However, they're struggling to find someone for the €300m they want for BLM.

Predicted losses without the levers was due to be €100m (approx) last year and €200m (approx) for this year. Question is if those losses are only covered by levers, which also need to be paid back, what happens when they cannot either pull more levers or run out?

Sounds like a house of cards over there. Literally sounds like they will have to continue to sell large parts of the club off and then hope the revenue and performance on the pitch significantly increases, whilst rasing €80m+ profit in the transfer market.

I guess they have to live every day to the fullest.

 

[bosnian_red]

I love that despite all they've spent and the way they acted, they are in fact still pretty shit. Embrace the transition, it's the smart thing to do.

 

[devil99]

That says a lot about Barca fans then if that's true, if a bit of a rebuild where they're still a top 4-5 team in Spain, is too much of an embarrassment to go watch your team.

Exactly. I don't see attendance going down drastically even after so many years of mediocrity at United.

 

[Morty_]

Yes, yes, yes, Barça is going to collapse because of a CL (corrupt tinpot tournament soon to be replaced by the Super League) group exit.

Also it is the end of the world that the club has its worst crisis in 20+ years and has not won any trophies for just 1 season in a row (2021-22) while numerous European top clubs can brag about 1 league title in 33 years (Liverpool), 5 seasons without any trophies won in a row, 15 years since a CL win, 10 years since a league win (Man Utd), Juventus being a joke in Europe for the past almost 30 years with no European trophies won, AC Milan with 2 scudetti wins in 20 years and 1 CL win in 20 years and the list goes on and on.

Barça on the other hand is coming of 15 years (2004-2019) of insane dominance (10 La Liga, 7 Copa del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 4 CL, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups titles), orgasmic football and legendary teams and players that will always be remembered and admired widely by football fans across the world, the GOAT winning more individual trophies than anyone else while representing the club etc.

The club is in a transitional season coming out of the worst institutional and sporting crisis in 20 + years. The GOAT leaving in August 2021 as well. Xavi a managerial novice. Laporta needing to clean the gigantic mess that Bartomeu left etc.

All in all this season is far from lost. La Liga is winnable and so is the Cops del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and likely the Europa League which I would rather win than going out in the knockout CL stages as we were very unlikely to win the CL anyway. The monetary loss from a CL group stage exit are widely overblown as already showcased in this thread by another user. This is more about prestige which is a joke anyway as we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years anyway so this does not change anything in this regard.

Also if not for the robbery last week and tons of injuries, we would most likely have qualified. Inter are not a better team but the CL was never about the best team winning anyway. Still a possibility to qualify although a remote one.

Barça will be back winning and competing for the biggest trophies. Just a question of when and not if. Could be this season already. Laporta has already done a tremendous job changing the squad for the better just within 1 year. The squad is young with tons of highly rated young players and talents with many more coming through.
New stadium coming within a few years, most deadwood gone next summer, wage bill under control, still a massive pull as a club etc. There are many reasons to be positive.

Are you okay?

 

[RoyH1]

How can Barcelona be renovating and upgrading their stadium in a project worth £1.3 billion if they are broke?

Because Goldman Sachs is playing the long game and looking forward to the day when they can sell off part of the club to the highest bidder.

 

[Lebo]

You could argue state owned clubs like City have smashed through the ceiling. They are a different monster entirely. Has there ever been a more dominant side than this City team week in week out?

They would be a match for even Pep’s great Barcelona team. I believe defensively they are better and score more goals quite possibly too on average.

I struggle to see any side in history beating them over a calendar year. They might be all things considered the best side we’ve seen in football even with no CL’s to their name so far. That competition is a lottery in the late rounds.

This is very far from the truth. That Barca team was flawless. I’m pretty sure 2008 United can beat this city team 6/10 times. Only players who can get into that team are Rodri for Carrick, Cancelo for Brown, Halaand for Tevez.

 

[sglowrider]

Ahhhh my doctor says i need to watch my intake but the salt in this thread from barca fans is too tasty to ignore

 

[AR87]

Yes, yes, yes, Barça is going to collapse because of a CL (corrupt tinpot tournament soon to be replaced by the Super League) group exit.

Also it is the end of the world that the club has its worst crisis in 20+ years and has not won any trophies for just 1 season in a row (2021-22) while numerous European top clubs can brag about 1 league title in 33 years (Liverpool), 5 seasons without any trophies won in a row, 15 years since a CL win, 10 years since a league win (Man Utd), Juventus being a joke in Europe for the past almost 30 years with no European trophies won, AC Milan with 2 scudetti wins in 20 years and 1 CL win in 20 years and the list goes on and on.

Barça on the other hand is coming of 15 years (2004-2019) of insane dominance (10 La Liga, 7 Copa del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 4 CL, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups titles), orgasmic football and legendary teams and players that will always be remembered and admired widely by football fans across the world, the GOAT winning more individual trophies than anyone else while representing the club etc.

The club is in a transitional season coming out of the worst institutional and sporting crisis in 20 + years. The GOAT leaving in August 2021 as well. Xavi a managerial novice. Laporta needing to clean the gigantic mess that Bartomeu left etc.

All in all this season is far from lost. La Liga is winnable and so is the Cops del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and likely the Europa League which I would rather win than going out in the knockout CL stages as we were very unlikely to win the CL anyway. The monetary loss from a CL group stage exit are widely overblown as already showcased in this thread by another user. This is more about prestige which is a joke anyway as we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years anyway so this does not change anything in this regard.

Also if not for the robbery last week and tons of injuries, we would most likely have qualified. Inter are not a better team but the CL was never about the best team winning anyway. Still a possibility to qualify although a remote one.

Barça will be back winning and competing for the biggest trophies. Just a question of when and not if. Could be this season already. Laporta has already done a tremendous job changing the squad for the better just within 1 year. The squad is young with tons of highly rated young players and talents with many more coming through.
New stadium coming within a few years, most deadwood gone next summer, wage bill under control, still a massive pull as a club etc. There are many reasons to be positive.

Right, everything is fine financially in 2022 and moving forward, because Barca had an amazing 15 year run of domestic and European performance that ended in 2019. It's alright to accept the reality that not qualifying for the KO stages is a serious blow to the club. You'll be ok.

 

[Slevs]

Yes, yes, yes, Barça is going to collapse because of a CL (corrupt tinpot tournament soon to be replaced by the Super League) group exit.

Also it is the end of the world that the club has its worst crisis in 20+ years and has not won any trophies for just 1 season in a row (2021-22) while numerous European top clubs can brag about 1 league title in 33 years (Liverpool), 5 seasons without any trophies won in a row, 15 years since a CL win, 10 years since a league win (Man Utd), Juventus being a joke in Europe for the past almost 30 years with no European trophies won, AC Milan with 2 scudetti wins in 20 years and 1 CL win in 20 years and the list goes on and on.

Barça on the other hand is coming of 15 years (2004-2019) of insane dominance (10 La Liga, 7 Copa del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 4 CL, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups titles), orgasmic football and legendary teams and players that will always be remembered and admired widely by football fans across the world, the GOAT winning more individual trophies than anyone else while representing the club etc.

The club is in a transitional season coming out of the worst institutional and sporting crisis in 20 + years. The GOAT leaving in August 2021 as well. Xavi a managerial novice. Laporta needing to clean the gigantic mess that Bartomeu left etc.

All in all this season is far from lost. La Liga is winnable and so is the Cops del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and likely the Europa League which I would rather win than going out in the knockout CL stages as we were very unlikely to win the CL anyway. The monetary loss from a CL group stage exit are widely overblown as already showcased in this thread by another user. This is more about prestige which is a joke anyway as we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years anyway so this does not change anything in this regard.

Also if not for the robbery last week and tons of injuries, we would most likely have qualified. Inter are not a better team but the CL was never about the best team winning anyway. Still a possibility to qualify although a remote one.

Barça will be back winning and competing for the biggest trophies. Just a question of when and not if. Could be this season already. Laporta has already done a tremendous job changing the squad for the better just within 1 year. The squad is young with tons of highly rated young players and talents with many more coming through.
New stadium coming within a few years, most deadwood gone next summer, wage bill under control, still a massive pull as a club etc. There are many reasons to be positive.

Are you okay?

 

[Ishdalar]

I guess they have to live every day to the fullest.

As a Barcelona fan, the skin grows thick to news like this.

"Win the UCL and La Liga", "Win a treble" and then news are "Barcelona running into economical troubles due to objectives pay after successful season".
News report we're broke, we sign Neymar, same next year and we sign Suarez. We've been broke since we signed Ronaldo yet somehow keep being top spenders year after year.

As Cruyff said, Barcelona have something no other club has to that same extent, "el entorno" (the environment), local press is always printing hit pieces because half have to be against the competent board and the other half for them, in the Real Madrid vs Barcelona media war most national journalists will jump to the bait of a negative Barcelona story, this used to also be true for Real Madrid until Florentino was able to turn the situation around (which is the context linking all his leaked audios a year ago), now this has taking another dimension since news about how badly run we are become trending topic instantly, even the ones based on smoke.

There's a bunch of teams with a self-destructive PR factor playing always against them, but by sheer size Barcelona are well ahead of other "environment" clubs.

That's not to say everything covers the smell of the current situation, we're screwed and we dig deeper season after season.

 

[TheGame]

Yes, yes, yes, Barça is going to collapse because of a CL (corrupt tinpot tournament soon to be replaced by the Super League) group exit.

Also it is the end of the world that the club has its worst crisis in 20+ years and has not won any trophies for just 1 season in a row (2021-22) while numerous European top clubs can brag about 1 league title in 33 years (Liverpool), 5 seasons without any trophies won in a row, 15 years since a CL win, 10 years since a league win (Man Utd), Juventus being a joke in Europe for the past almost 30 years with no European trophies won, AC Milan with 2 scudetti wins in 20 years and 1 CL win in 20 years and the list goes on and on.

Barça on the other hand is coming of 15 years (2004-2019) of insane dominance (10 La Liga, 7 Copa del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 4 CL, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups titles), orgasmic football and legendary teams and players that will always be remembered and admired widely by football fans across the world, the GOAT winning more individual trophies than anyone else while representing the club etc.

The club is in a transitional season coming out of the worst institutional and sporting crisis in 20 + years. The GOAT leaving in August 2021 as well. Xavi a managerial novice. Laporta needing to clean the gigantic mess that Bartomeu left etc.

All in all this season is far from lost. La Liga is winnable and so is the Cops del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and likely the Europa League which I would rather win than going out in the knockout CL stages as we were very unlikely to win the CL anyway. The monetary loss from a CL group stage exit are widely overblown as already showcased in this thread by another user. This is more about prestige which is a joke anyway as we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years anyway so this does not change anything in this regard.

Also if not for the robbery last week and tons of injuries, we would most likely have qualified. Inter are not a better team but the CL was never about the best team winning anyway. Still a possibility to qualify although a remote one.

Barça will be back winning and competing for the biggest trophies. Just a question of when and not if. Could be this season already. Laporta has already done a tremendous job changing the squad for the better just within 1 year. The squad is young with tons of highly rated young players and talents with many more coming through.
New stadium coming within a few years, most deadwood gone next summer, wage bill under control, still a massive pull as a club etc. There are many reasons to be positive.

Are you smoking the same stuff as Liz Truss?

 

[sglowrider]

As a Barcelona fan, the skin grows thick to news like this.

"Win the UCL and La Liga", "Win a treble" and then news are "Barcelona running into economical troubles due to objectives pay after successful season".
News report we're broke, we sign Neymar, same next year and we sign Suarez. We've been broke since we signed Ronaldo yet somehow keep being top spenders year after year.

As Cruyff said, Barcelona have something no other club has to that same extent, "el entorno" (the environment), local press is always printing hit pieces because half have to be against the competent board and the other half for them, in the Real Madrid vs Barcelona media war most national journalists will jump to the bait of a negative Barcelona story, this used to also be true for Real Madrid until Florentino was able to turn the situation around (which is the context linking all his leaked audios a year ago), now this has taking another dimension since news about how badly run we are become trending topic instantly, even the ones based on smoke.

There's a bunch of teams with a self-destructive PR factor playing always against them, but by sheer size Barcelona are well ahead of other "environment" clubs.

That's not to say everything covers the smell of the current situation, we're screwed and we dig deeper season after season.

Maybe its the expectations of the fans esp the socios that's forcing the club presidents to up the ante every single election? The long the club doesn't win the BIg Ears or every time RM wins, the bigger & unrealistic the promises become -- because the fans expect it?
Then after a while it spirals like some gambler at the casino on a bad streak.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

We've been broke since we signed Ronaldo yet somehow because we keep being top spenders year after year.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Yes, yes, yes, Barça is going to collapse because of a CL (corrupt tinpot tournament soon to be replaced by the Super League) group exit.

Also it is the end of the world that the club has its worst crisis in 20+ years and has not won any trophies for just 1 season in a row (2021-22) while numerous European top clubs can brag about 1 league title in 33 years (Liverpool), 5 seasons without any trophies won in a row, 15 years since a CL win, 10 years since a league win (Man Utd), Juventus being a joke in Europe for the past almost 30 years with no European trophies won, AC Milan with 2 scudetti wins in 20 years and 1 CL win in 20 years and the list goes on and on.

Barça on the other hand is coming of 15 years (2004-2019) of insane dominance (10 La Liga, 7 Copa del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 4 CL, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups titles), orgasmic football and legendary teams and players that will always be remembered and admired widely by football fans across the world, the GOAT winning more individual trophies than anyone else while representing the club etc.

The club is in a transitional season coming out of the worst institutional and sporting crisis in 20 + years. The GOAT leaving in August 2021 as well. Xavi a managerial novice. Laporta needing to clean the gigantic mess that Bartomeu left etc.

All in all this season is far from lost. La Liga is winnable and so is the Cops del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and likely the Europa League which I would rather win than going out in the knockout CL stages as we were very unlikely to win the CL anyway. The monetary loss from a CL group stage exit are widely overblown as already showcased in this thread by another user. This is more about prestige which is a joke anyway as we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years anyway so this does not change anything in this regard.

Also if not for the robbery last week and tons of injuries, we would most likely have qualified. Inter are not a better team but the CL was never about the best team winning anyway. Still a possibility to qualify although a remote one.

Barça will be back winning and competing for the biggest trophies. Just a question of when and not if. Could be this season already. Laporta has already done a tremendous job changing the squad for the better just within 1 year. The squad is young with tons of highly rated young players and talents with many more coming through.
New stadium coming within a few years, most deadwood gone next summer, wage bill under control, still a massive pull as a club etc. There are many reasons to be positive.

TL/DR.

Summarised by the quote “we have largely been a joke In Europe in recent years”. Truth.