Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

Not good news. United don’t have anything to spend and probably won’t buy any more players under the Glazers, so it’ll be our rivals taking advantage, not us
 

If anybody has any symphay for them then they’re idiots. Oh they need to win, they haven’t had a chance to win anything yet to justify the spend and they’re already in worse financial trouble
 
Wait their wage budget is €120m for the whole squad for the year? Sorry but la liga’s rules are lunacy, if the same was applied by the premier league 18 of the teams wouldn’t be meeting their targets. At this point, this is actively damaging Barca’s competitiveness.
Have you seen their Financial mess? They should have a smaller budget
 
Not good news. United don’t have anything to spend and probably won’t buy any more players under the Glazers, so it’ll be our rivals taking advantage, not us

I suspect this will somehow be solved. La Liga needs them, Real Madrid need them, and they might just manage to ship out FDJ this January to buy a little more time.
 
Have you seen their Financial mess? They should have a smaller budget
I have but a €120m wage budget would be the smallest in the Prem, no one is convincing me that Bournemouth are in a better position financially that FC Barecleona, La Liga is making them pay for historical losses but the same rules applied in the Prem would cripple pretty much all of the league. It’s ridiculous.
 
I have but a €120m wage budget would be the smallest in the Prem, no one is convincing me that Bournemouth are in a better position financially that FC Barecleona, La Liga is making them pay for historical losses but the same rules applied in the Prem would cripple pretty much all of the league. It’s ridiculous.
Their debt was 1.3 billion last year. If anything the rules were too lax to allow themselves to nearly bankrupt the club in the recent past. Look how they reacted to that situation. I’m shocked they’re even allowed to buy anybody and the board should be arrested for the levers they pulled last summer.
 
I have but a €120m wage budget would be the smallest in the Prem, no one is convincing me that Bournemouth are in a better position financially that FC Barecleona, La Liga is making them pay for historical losses but the same rules applied in the Prem would cripple pretty much all of the league. It’s ridiculous.

120m isn't close to the smallest wage budget in the PL, that's in the top third of the league.
 

Too lazy to find the comment from that Bayern head honcho who said they wanted the Lewandowski money right away because Farca might not be there to pay in installments.

Delicious stuff all round.
 
120m isn't close to the smallest wage budget in the PL, that's in the top third of the league.
€120 million is equvalent to about £105 million.
Last season it would be 17th in the English league system, just a hair below Newcastle, Leeds and Brighton.

 
Laporta gave a detailed interview with cadena ser. Here are some statements from him:

Laporta said:
"In principle, if everything goes well, Busquets will continue until the end of the season. And at the end of the season we will talk about it."
"There will be no movements in the January window."
"We will have to wait until June to register Araújo and Gavi. We will also have to wait to face the renewal of Balde."
"We will respect inherited contracts. We are very happy with De Jong and Ter Stegen. Neither is for sale."
"Barça socios can rest easy, because the economic situation is under control."
"Next year, going to Montjuïc, we will have a decrease in income, but we will compensate in another way."
"In order to return to the 1/1 rule, we have to generate €26m. This is the deficit due to the elimination in the Champions League."


So this window, Barca won't be transfering any players. The ffp situation is hard as you see on Gavi's and Araujo's summer registration. The elimination in the CL complicated it, as we lost €26m because the club always budgets to reach at least QF. Now it's important to generate those €26m until the end of june to have the 1:1 Masa Salarial rule for next season's ffp. Reaching the EL final would generate €21m, some contracts will end and Barca has some lucrative offers to play some showmatches, so there are options to reach those €26m until the deadline.
Apart from the ffp, the general money situation has stabilized although there is still much work to be done.
Barca has, thanks to those levers, a lot of cash right now and the debts are getting smaller. More and more Barto contracts run out, so the club is on the right way to healthy wages and balance again. That's why Laporta rejected a €320m offer for blm right now.
Going forward to the next season, there will be less ticket income, around €93m, because we're moving out of the Camp Nou into a smaller stadium until the end of 2024. But he said the club has plans to recover those losses.
The construction has already started. In the last match, we saw a big part of the upper stand missing. The credit for the Nou Camp Nou project won't affect the finances of the first team acording to him, because Barca will start paying it back only when the stadium is finished with the additional income. The plan is to move back to the Camp Nou in the end of 2024 and finish the stadium in 2026.

Also the club is looking for a Busquets replacement. Frenkie can play on that position, but one player isn't enough. Laporta really likes Neves, but they'll discuss this problem internally together with Xavi. He also mentioned, that the club is very happy with Dembele, Fati and Frenkie and they are not for sale.
He also highlighted again that it was necessary to put the club before the best player of all time. There are some loose contacts between Laporta and Messi's entourage, but nothing serious. The club still owes money to Messi, but everything is settled and agreed on.

And about the Superleague, he said that the club is waiting for a final court decision in april. If they'll allow it, the SL is going to start in 2025 as a competition to the PL, but he hopes the english teams will follow in time.
 
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I have but a €120m wage budget would be the smallest in the Prem, no one is convincing me that Bournemouth are in a better position financially that FC Barecleona, La Liga is making them pay for historical losses but the same rules applied in the Prem would cripple pretty much all of the league. It’s ridiculous.
If they hadn't been so idiotic in the past, they wouldn't be in this mess.

When they needed to make cut backs, save money and get themselves back into a good financial state, what did they do?

They decided to sign more players :lol:

Barca need a big reset. They've essentially been given enough rope to hang themselves, and their stupid board have decided to jump.

It might require them 5-10 years of being mid table, but if they don't they'll forever be fighting with 1 hand behind their backs.
 
Laporta gave a detailed interview with cadena ser. Here are some statements from him:




So this window, Barca won't be transfering any players. The ffp situation is hard as you see on Gavi's and Araujo's summer registration. The elimination in the CL complicated it, as we lost €26m because the club always budgets to reach at least QF. Now it's important to generate those €26m until the end of june to have the 1:1 Masa Salarial rule for next season's ffp. Reaching the EL final would generate €21m,

And about the Superleague, he said that the club is waiting for a final court decision in april. If they'll allow it, the SL is going to start in 2025 as a competition to the PL, but he hopes the english teams will follow in time.

I fully expect us to beat you, so that will be another option eliminated.

The Super League idea is dead! They are clutching at straws now. Its far far too toxic an idea, English clubs won't go anywhere near it.
Good luck starting a Super league without any English, German or French clubs!
 
I fully expect us to beat you, so that will be another option eliminated.

The Super League idea is dead! They are clutching at straws now. Its far far too toxic an idea, English clubs won't go anywhere near it.
Good luck starting a Super league without any English, German or French clubs!

Shows how delusional Laporta is and that his word can't be trusted.
 
Where are the Barca lads? Got awfully quiet in here. They were giving it large about ‘levers’ over the summer. No problem they said.
They used all levers, got eliminated in the CL, and still need money. Maybe they really shouldn’t have signed all these players last transfer window. Who would have thunk.
 
They used all levers, got eliminated in the CL, and still need money. Maybe they really shouldn’t have signed all these players last transfer window. Who would have thunk.

I don't believe it, the Barcelona experts here told us it was fine.
 
They used all levers, got eliminated in the CL, and still need money. Maybe they really shouldn’t have signed all these players last transfer window. Who would have thunk.

Well, la liga teams(except RM) can't score against them anymore, apparently its impossible, i guess thats something.

Maybe it says more about the state of the league though, cause no way are they good at defending.
 
Well, la liga teams(except RM) can't score against them anymore, apparently its impossible, i guess thats something.

Maybe it says more about the state of the league though, cause no way are they good at defending.
Maybe its a similar thing to Manchester City? Their matches against weaker teams are pretty routine but their dominance doesn't extend to stronger teams where there record isn't as special as their points tallies would suggest. Champions League record similarly not that great.
Its just very difficult for weaker teams to get a foothold in the match, any weaker positions will be exploited mercilessly. You need a minimum level of quality across the pitch to compete and create more than 1 or 2 half chances. You'll get lucky sometimes and be clinical and win from that by defending brilliantly for 90 mins but its not a good platform to get results from
 
Maybe its a similar thing to Manchester City? Their matches against weaker teams are pretty routine but their dominance doesn't extend to stronger teams where there record isn't as special as their points tallies would suggest. Champions League record similarly not that great.
Its just very difficult for weaker teams to get a foothold in the match, any weaker positions will be exploited mercilessly. You need a minimum level of quality across the pitch to compete and create more than 1 or 2 half chances. You'll get lucky sometimes and be clinical and win from that by defending brilliantly for 90 mins but its not a good platform to get results from
It is simply strange since Barca’s defense is pretty crap and still they don’t concede goals in the league.
 
Maybe its a similar thing to Manchester City? Their matches against weaker teams are pretty routine but their dominance doesn't extend to stronger teams where there record isn't as special as their points tallies would suggest. Champions League record similarly not that great.
Its just very difficult for weaker teams to get a foothold in the match, any weaker positions will be exploited mercilessly. You need a minimum level of quality across the pitch to compete and create more than 1 or 2 half chances. You'll get lucky sometimes and be clinical and win from that by defending brilliantly for 90 mins but its not a good platform to get results from

Even so, it has to, and should come to and end in the 2nd half of the season, for the sake of sanity.

Its frankly insulting to actual great defensive teams of the past that they have, on paper, such a great defensive record this season.

They are not Chelsea 04/05, yet one might think so, looking at the stats alone.
 
Laporta gave a detailed interview with cadena ser. Here are some statements from him:




So this window, Barca won't be transfering any players. The ffp situation is hard as you see on Gavi's and Araujo's summer registration. The elimination in the CL complicated it, as we lost €26m because the club always budgets to reach at least QF. Now it's important to generate those €26m until the end of june to have the 1:1 Masa Salarial rule for next season's ffp. Reaching the EL final would generate €21m, some contracts will end and Barca has some lucrative offers to play some showmatches, so there are options to reach those €26m until the deadline.
Apart from the ffp, the general money situation has stabilized although there is still much work to be done.
Barca has, thanks to those levers, a lot of cash right now and the debts are getting smaller. More and more Barto contracts run out, so the club is on the right way to healthy wages and balance again. That's why Laporta rejected a €320m offer for blm right now.
Going forward to the next season, there will be less ticket income, around €93m, because we're moving out of the Camp Nou into a smaller stadium until the end of 2024. But he said the club has plans to recover those losses.
The construction has already started. In the last match, we saw a big part of the upper stand missing. The credit for the Nou Camp Nou project won't affect the finances of the first team acording to him, because Barca will start paying it back only when the stadium is finished with the additional income. The plan is to move back to the Camp Nou in the end of 2024 and finish the stadium in 2026.

Also the club is looking for a Busquets replacement. Frenkie can play on that position, but one player isn't enough. Laporta really likes Neves, but they'll discuss this problem internally together with Xavi. He also mentioned, that the club is very happy with Dembele, Fati and Frenkie and they are not for sale.
He also highlighted again that it was necessary to put the club before the best player of all time. There are some loose contacts between Laporta and Messi's entourage, but nothing serious. The club still owes money to Messi, but everything is settled and agreed on.

And about the Superleague, he said that the club is waiting for a final court decision in april. If they'll allow it, the SL is going to start in 2025 as a competition to the PL, but he hopes the english teams will follow in time.
As we said at the time, the super league is nothing but a money grab and chance to bail big clubs out who have spent beyond their means. I hope it gets refused again
 
As we said at the time, the super league is nothing but a money grab and chance to bail big clubs out who have spent beyond their means. I hope it gets refused again

Of course it is a money grab. No one is hiding it. Perez, Laporta and Agnelli said it several times. How can other european teams compete with the current money flow you guys have in the PL? You get 3 times the tv money and many of your clubs are owned by billionaires. If the rest of europe doesn't respond to that trend in some way, the PL becomes the SL. Or do you expect the other european teams just to roll over and be simply training facilities for the big PL clubs?
Having every year 3 out of 4 CL semifinalists from the PL + PSG or having to watch City - Liverpool 6 times a season doesn't excite the common fan. Repetitiveness is boring but if nothing happens, then that will soon be the reality of european football.
 
Of course it is a money grab. No one is hiding it. Perez, Laporta and Agnelli said it several times. How can other european teams compete with the current money flow you guys have in the PL? You get 3 times the tv money and many of your clubs are owned by billionaires. If the rest of europe doesn't respond to that trend in some way, the PL becomes the SL. Or do you expect the other european teams just to roll over and be simply training facilities for the big PL clubs?
Having every year 3 out of 4 CL semifinalists from the PL + PSG or having to watch City - Liverpool 6 times a season doesn't excite the common fan. Repetitiveness is boring but if nothing happens, then that will soon be the reality of european football.

it didn't seem to be an issue when Barcelona were at their peak, I'm sure you were constantly shouting "THIS IS BORING".
 
it didn't seem to be an issue when Barcelona were at their peak, I'm sure you were constantly shouting "THIS IS BORING".

There is a difference in having a sports peak because of a golden generation for a few years or watching an irreversible trend because of economic reasons. The PL isn't just having a peak. It crushes european competition with its money slowly but surely.
 
Of course it is a money grab. No one is hiding it. Perez, Laporta and Agnelli said it several times. How can other european teams compete with the current money flow you guys have in the PL? You get 3 times the tv money and many of your clubs are owned by billionaires. If the rest of europe doesn't respond to that trend in some way, the PL becomes the SL. Or do you expect the other european teams just to roll over and be simply training facilities for the big PL clubs?
Having every year 3 out of 4 CL semifinalists from the PL + PSG or having to watch City - Liverpool 6 times a season doesn't excite the common fan. Repetitiveness is boring but if nothing happens, then that will soon be the reality of european football.
Maybe you should have left some money for the other La Liga teams. I mean, you only had 3 decades to see how the PL did it, but I guess that wasn’t enough.
Imagine complaining about someone else being rich, because you were too shit at managing your own league.
 
There is a difference in having a sports peak because of a golden generation for a few years or watching an irreversible trend because of economic reasons. The PL isn't just having a peak. It crushes european competition with its money slowly but surely.
You two spent all the money during your peak years?! Just because you mismanaged it doesn’t mean it’s others fault
 
Of course it is a money grab. No one is hiding it. Perez, Laporta and Agnelli said it several times. How can other european teams compete with the current money flow you guys have in the PL? You get 3 times the tv money and many of your clubs are owned by billionaires. If the rest of europe doesn't respond to that trend in some way, the PL becomes the SL. Or do you expect the other european teams just to roll over and be simply training facilities for the big PL clubs?
Having every year 3 out of 4 CL semifinalists from the PL + PSG or having to watch City - Liverpool 6 times a season doesn't excite the common fan. Repetitiveness is boring but if nothing happens, then that will soon be the reality of european football.
Poor argument that, the premier league is so rich because it’s so exciting to watch. It’s in the best Interest for Barcelona and Madrid for the rest of the la Liga to get better and richer to make it a more competitive league.
 
Where the feck those Barca fans in FDJ transfer thread last Summer, who said everything was rosy under their lord and savior Laporta?
 
Of course it is a money grab. No one is hiding it. Perez, Laporta and Agnelli said it several times. How can other european teams compete with the current money flow you guys have in the PL? You get 3 times the tv money and many of your clubs are owned by billionaires. If the rest of europe doesn't respond to that trend in some way, the PL becomes the SL. Or do you expect the other european teams just to roll over and be simply training facilities for the big PL clubs?
Having every year 3 out of 4 CL semifinalists from the PL + PSG or having to watch City - Liverpool 6 times a season doesn't excite the common fan. Repetitiveness is boring but if nothing happens, then that will soon be the reality of european football.
And you don’t think it’s boring that under a SL it would be the same teams playing each other several times a year?

you guys in the Spanish leagues have had the advantage over everyone for years. Tapping up players with nothing happening, royal bail outs, FIFA presidents speaking out to influence transfers, taking and hoarding the best players because you can.

more money might be in the premier league but you can’t honestly say that we’ve been hoarding the best players in the world. They’ve still been going to Spain or Italy (in the past) as their primary choice. Even the best players we’ve had generally bugger off to Spain after a few years. We usually only get cast offs once you’re done with them.

so don’t give us that crap about PL teams having the advantage.

Barca are in the shit now because of bad financial management. You haven’t had a lack of money, you’ve stockpiled players on ridiculous contracts and it’s come home to bite finally. This is a period now where you have to work through some sort of plan to get out of it but expecting other teams to join in a money grab is morally wrong
 
Of course it is a money grab. No one is hiding it. Perez, Laporta and Agnelli said it several times. How can other european teams compete with the current money flow you guys have in the PL? You get 3 times the tv money and many of your clubs are owned by billionaires. If the rest of europe doesn't respond to that trend in some way, the PL becomes the SL. Or do you expect the other european teams just to roll over and be simply training facilities for the big PL clubs?
Having every year 3 out of 4 CL semifinalists from the PL + PSG or having to watch City - Liverpool 6 times a season doesn't excite the common fan. Repetitiveness is boring but if nothing happens, then that will soon be the reality of european football.

So you're arguing for a closed super league, the aim of which is to pitch the same 'big' teams against each other every year, by stating that repetitiveness is boring?
 
There is a difference in having a sports peak because of a golden generation for a few years or watching an irreversible trend because of economic reasons. The PL isn't just having a peak. It crushes european competition with its money slowly but surely.

There isn't much evidence of that trend in Champions League winners over the last decade and its been going on a while.
 
So you're arguing for a closed super league, the aim of which is to pitch the same 'big' teams against each other every year, by stating that repetitiveness is boring?


And you don’t think it’s boring that under a SL it would be the same teams playing each other several times a year?

I don't argue for a closed super league. The first format that was proposed was awful. Of course that league needs to be open with relegations. Also those teams won't leave their domestic leagues, but the SL should be a substitute to the CL if I understand it correctly. The SL would cut out the useless and corrupt middlemen uefa that takes 330m for itself every season and promote better games instead of playing half your CL games against for example weaker east european sides, so the top clubs receive more money and that would make the gap smaller.

you guys in the Spanish leagues have had the advantage over everyone for years. Tapping up players with nothing happening, royal bail outs, FIFA presidents speaking out to influence transfers, taking and hoarding the best players because you can.

more money might be in the premier league but you can’t honestly say that we’ve been hoarding the best players in the world. They’ve still been going to Spain or Italy (in the past) as their primary choice. Even the best players we’ve had generally bugger off to Spain after a few years. We usually only get cast offs once you’re done with them.

so don’t give us that crap about PL teams having the advantage.

Madrid and Barca always payed with their own, earned money. If they take a credit, they have to pay it back with their own money.
You don't need to like it, but you can't deny it. Now, many PL teams pay with outside money, provided by their sugar daddies, not generated by football. It's like comparing a kid who worked the whole day to be able to buy a toy and he even took a loan to be able to afford it, while the other kid just asks his father and gets most of the toys he wants. That's the current situation.
I understand your position, that in the last decade you had to see how most of the best players went to spain and now you feel some justice, revenge whatever. But that was a fair market without big investors, without outside money. Clubs spent whatever they earned or had to take a loan, nothing unfair in that.
It's a whole new situation nowadays with outside money ruling football. And without a better money distribution between all the topclubs, I see the PL become an irreversible SL and all the excitement about european competition will stop. The CL only became so big and exciting, because it meant something to beat the best teams from other countries. If one country will take over european football, then nobody will care anymore. Whats the point of a european competition, if it's dominated by one country?
Of course it's not like that yet, because you can still argue that Madrid and sometimes Bayern wins the CL now and then, but every time it feels more and more lucky/undeserved, at least in my opinion. Last year Madrid were the worse side in every match against the PL teams, but had thankfully Benzema in the form of his life. The trend is dangerous. Juventus, Madrid, Barca and Bayern struggle a lot to keep up and that will worsen year after year. We can still pull players thanks to our big names in Spain, Bayern still gets some cheap good german players because of their monopoly there. But that won't last forever if the gap continues to grow and more sheikhs with more outside money buy themselves into the english football.



Barca are in the shit now because of bad financial management. You haven’t had a lack of money, you’ve stockpiled players on ridiculous contracts and it’s come home to bite finally. This is a period now where you have to work through some sort of plan to get out of it but expecting other teams to join in a money grab is morally wrong

That's another topic. I'm not talking about Bartomeu's mismanagement here, but the general situation.