Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

You should post the relevant excerpt from the article here since not everyone has a membership to The Athletic.

I can see from googling their website that Dermot Corrigan has written two of those articles. I can also see that Dermot Corrigan quoted the "report" by Marc Ciria in a tweet thread about his article:



I looked into that Marc Ciria thing earlier (I think I posted about in on this thread). I don't think the report is actually accessible, but you can read the articles and watch a video of him talking about how he came up with the numbers. It's really faulty and dubious analysis and is massively overstating Messi's impact to the bottom line. He also admits that he doesn't have access to most of the actual numbers required to make this analysis, yet somehow came up with a final number that has significant digits up to the thousand euros. It's basically just made up out of whole cloth and the analysis came out a few days after Messi's contract leaked, it's almost certainly paid propaganda.

Even if Messi made 30% of their money, it was still idiotic for them to pay him almost 100 mil a year. People saying it isn't Messi's fault are just blind supporters.
 
Even if Messi made 30% of their money, it was still idiotic for them to pay him almost 100 mil a year. People saying it isn't Messi's fault are just blind supporters.

See if Barcelona revenue drops another 30% this season? I doubt it...

If that does happen they'll be selling the key players from the first team squad this summer!
 
Even if Messi made 30% of their money, it was still idiotic for them to pay him almost 100 mil a year. People saying it isn't Messi's fault are just blind supporters.

Wrong, paying Griezmann Umtiti Roberto coutinho and pjanic what they did was what effed them. Messi was not the issue but keep telling yourself that.
 
Wrong, paying Griezmann Umtiti Roberto coutinho and pjanic what they did was what effed them. Messi was not the issue but keep telling yourself that.

I don't see how a single person (either the player himself or Barcelona) could think Griezmann would work great with Messi. It was pretty obvious it wouldn't, it really was time to stop this madness. Griezmann was just not appropriate for Barcelona, especially with this wage.
 
See if Barcelona revenue drops another 30% this season? I doubt it...

That obviously won't happen in the season where the stadiums open again. They're in this situation in large part because they lost all matchday revenue during Covid. Their revenue will grow compared to last season, the question is if it'll be enough.
 
Wrong, paying Griezmann Umtiti Roberto coutinho and pjanic what they did was what effed them. Messi was not the issue but keep telling yourself that.

He wasn't "the issue" but he was an issue. When you play a player that much money other players, even if they aren't nearly as good, are gonna want more money so you'll be paying them higher rates. Same thing happens to United. Plus Barca have been caught with paying players in weird ways (Neymar), you can't really rule out they sold their soul to Messi somehow but it's hidden.
 
I don't see how a single person (either the player himself or Barcelona) could think Griezmann would work great with Messi. It was pretty obvious it wouldn't, it really was time to stop this madness. Griezmann was just not appropriate for Barcelona, especially with this wage.

It was a terrible move from the second pen was put to paper. Barto self sabotaged the team in unfathomable ways
 
He wasn't "the issue" but he was an issue. When you play a player that much money other players, even if they aren't nearly as good, are gonna want more money so you'll be paying them higher rates. Same thing happens to United. Plus Barca have been caught with paying players in weird ways (Neymar), you can't really rule out they sold their soul to Messi somehow but it's hidden.

Messi was/is the greatest player in the world. You can certainly argue he was paid an insane amount, but it’s up to the president to put his foot down on the other contracts. I mean NO player on Barca (of the overpaid ones I listed) came remotely close to playing even close to his salary. At least Messi was the best and a huge part of their brand. But none of those other players should have gotten anything close to that salary. That’s on the president.
 
I highly doubt that. Messi was the last string tying this team to the "great Barcelona". Even after Xavi and Iniesta left, you still had Messi reminding you of the days when it was without a doubt the best team in the world, he was a beacon. It will have a financial impact, for Barcelona and for La Liga since it's a huge blow for them with Ronaldo being gone as well. You need stars to promote your team and league, to put on the posters and for the moment, there isn't any in la liga. Rakuten not renewing the deal (allegedly because of Covid but it's total BS since Rakuten significantly increased their financial results in 2020 and 2021) is probably the 1st exemple, lets see what Barcelona gets from the new sponsor.

Stars come and stars go. Next season it’s hardly unlikely that La Liga will have Mbappe and Pogba to promote the league. There’s still plenty of quality players representing La Liga and Ronald has been gone for years without as much as a dip.

In terms of financial deals, not sure where the confusion comes from. As soon as covid-19 became such a disaster all major companies started focusing on how they could take advantage of the situation and what type of damage control they had to do. No one is going to spend more money than they have to, and any club needing a new sponsor during or right after this disaster, isn’t going to have the upper hand in negotiations. Seeing what Barcelona will get from their new deal isn’t going to indicate much regarding the financial consequences of losing Messi.
 
Wrong, paying Griezmann Umtiti Roberto coutinho and pjanic what they did was what effed them. Messi was not the issue but keep telling yourself that.
It's obvious that other players are going to ask for high wages when they know what Messi was earning.

If Messi was getting less, then the other players would as well, so, yes, Messi was the issue.
 
It's obvious that other players are going to ask for high wages when they know what Messi was earning.

If Messi was getting less, then the other players would as well, so, yes, Messi was the issue.

I really don't get how this works?

Players can ask whatever they want, but the market dictates what they can feasibly get. Say Sergi Roberto is paid 100K per week and then demands 200K because he saw Messi's salary getting bumped (numbers are not necessarily true, just for comparison). If he can get said 200K week somewhere else, fair enough. If he can't then what can he do exactly? You tell him "If you want 200K find a club that's willing to give you that and we'll sell you, off you go". Sergi Roberto then either finds a club or doesn't and I feel he'd have slightly above zero chance of doing that outside China/Arabia/perhaps MLS. That goes for the large majority of their current players IMO.

Florentino Perez had Ronaldo and Bale on big wages and still managed somehow to keep the rest of the team on some sort of scale.
 
Stars come and stars go. Next season it’s hardly unlikely that La Liga will have Mbappe and Pogba to promote the league. There’s still plenty of quality players representing La Liga and Ronald has been gone for years without as much as a dip.


In terms of financial deals, not sure where the confusion comes from. As soon as covid-19 became such a disaster all major companies started focusing on how they could take advantage of the situation and what type of damage control they had to do. No one is going to spend more money than they have to, and any club needing a new sponsor during or right after this disaster, isn’t going to have the upper hand in negotiations. Seeing what Barcelona will get from their new deal isn’t going to indicate much regarding the financial consequences of losing Messi.

No. It's the 1st time in ages that there's not a single "star" in La Liga. For a while now they go but they don't come. It's really easy to blame COVID but the truth is, it wouldn't be surprising to see a lot of sponsorships go down in the future if top clubs don't buy bankable players.

And as I mentionned, Rakuten didn't need damage control because of COVID, their profits grew even during the pandemic.
 
No. It's the 1st time in ages that there's not a single "star" in La Liga. For a while now they go but they don't come. It's really easy to blame COVID but the truth is, it wouldn't be surprising to see a lot of sponsorships go down in the future if top clubs don't buy bankable players.

And as I mentionned, Rakuten didn't need damage control because of COVID, their profits grew even during the pandemic.

There's plenty of stars in La Liga, but they no longer have the worlds best player.

No one is going to pay more than they have to on the basis that "they can", it has extremely little to do with not needing to do damage control and whatever their profits are. Anyone involved in sponsorship talks with Barcelona are fully aware of the extents of their situation and will use it to their advantage to get the best possible deal.

Not sure why some are so desperate to completely ignore the obvious just to draw links to Messi being the source
 
There's plenty of stars in La Liga, but they no longer have the worlds best player.

No one is going to pay more than they have to on the basis that "they can", it has extremely little to do with not needing to do damage control and whatever their profits are. Anyone involved in sponsorship talks with Barcelona are fully aware of the extents of their situation and will use it to their advantage to get the best possible deal.

Not sure why some are so desperate to completely ignore the obvious just to draw links to Messi being the source

That's pretty much the same thing, i don't mean talents, I mean very popular players. It's the first time in decades it happens and it will have an impact on the popularity of the league. Also, the overall level greatly decreased compared to, lets say 2017. A lot of people are fans of a player nowadays, and not that much of a team, I really don't think people here realise what Messi means outside of england, that's a HUGE blow in popularity. They'll try to sell another player as the new Messi (probably Pedri or Fati) and you'd better hope it works out because if it doesn't, it'll be hard to build an efficient marketing strategy.

A shirt sponsor is worth far more if a player that will end up in video clips ( top goals, top skills, you name it) wears it. Messi was all over the place, in europe, in south america, worldwide, we'll see if sponsors consider Fati or De Jong will do the same.
 
That's pretty much the same thing, i don't mean talents, I mean very popular players. It's the first time in decades it happens and it will have an impact on the popularity of the league. Also, the overall level greatly decreased compared to, lets say 2017. A lot of people are fans of a player nowadays, and not that much of a team, I really don't think people here realise what Messi means outside of england, that's a HUGE blow in popularity. They'll try to sell another player as the new Messi (probably Pedri or Fati) and you'd better hope it works out because if it doesn't, it'll be hard to build an efficient marketing strategy.

A shirt sponsor is worth far more if a player that will end up in video clips ( top goals, top skills, you name it) wears it. Messi was all over the place, in europe, in south america, worldwide, we'll see if sponsors consider Fati or De Jong will do the same.

It’s not pretty much the same thing. The Premier League, for instance, hasn’t had an undisputed top 3 player for ages without any noticeable effect. Players come and players go, you might see an increase when you sign a key player but it’s very rare that you see instant dips due to losing a player. In terms of very popular players, outside the top 3 (Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar), who are miles ahead of the rest, the popularity of the players are quite similar. Benzema, Marcelo, Depay, Pique, Griezmann. Next season odds are that both Pogba and Mbappe will be playing in Spain, Real Madrid will pretty much be picking up stars for feck all.

The notion that Messi accounted for 30% of Barcelonas total revenue was daft enough…Not sure why you’re so desperate to take it one step further.
 
That's pretty much the same thing, i don't mean talents, I mean very popular players. It's the first time in decades it happens and it will have an impact on the popularity of the league. Also, the overall level greatly decreased compared to, lets say 2017. A lot of people are fans of a player nowadays, and not that much of a team, I really don't think people here realise what Messi means outside of england, that's a HUGE blow in popularity. They'll try to sell another player as the new Messi (probably Pedri or Fati) and you'd better hope it works out because if it doesn't, it'll be hard to build an efficient marketing strategy.

A shirt sponsor is worth far more if a player that will end up in video clips ( top goals, top skills, you name it) wears it. Messi was all over the place, in europe, in south america, worldwide, we'll see if sponsors consider Fati or De Jong will do the same.

Messi was huge for La Liga, but spanish football is massive WorldWide, people will keep following spanish Football wether Messi is there or not.
EPL in 21th century is doing financially impecable, in general terms, when it comes to sponsorship/deals, and we have to go back to the early-mid 2000s for EPL to have a Balloon D'or podium (Henry, Cristiano and Lampard)...the whole 2010s, EPL didn't have a single player who could be disputed as best in the world, and that didn't affect them economically at all.
 
A lot of people are fans of a player nowadays, and not that much of a team
This pretty much sums up the problem. I’d add they’re not even big fans of the game either. A large proportion of footy fans aren‘t really footy fans. They are fan boys and girls. In the same way they follow the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys and buy every record no matter how shit the content, the Messi/Ronaldo fans will follow their idols. They don‘t care about La Liga or the PL.

I understand where the hope is coming from that La Liga without the massive stars is still going to be a huge success and have endless followers around the globe. I just don‘t believe it. Footy has changed. It isn‘t about the game anymore. Wherever the rich and the famous show up, that‘s where the money will be thrown.
 
This pretty much sums up the problem. I’d add they’re not even big fans of the game either. A large proportion of footy fans aren‘t really footy fans. They are fan boys and girls. In the same way they follow the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys and buy every record no matter how shit the content, the Messi/Ronaldo fans will follow their idols. They don‘t care about La Liga or the PL.

I understand where the hope is coming from that La Liga without the massive stars is still going to be a huge success and have endless followers around the globe. I just don‘t believe it. Footy has changed. It isn‘t about the game anymore. Wherever the rich and the famous show up, that‘s where the money will be thrown.
It's a wonder the prem was still a more lucrative league than la liga for the decade that Messi and Ronaldo were there.
 
It's a wonder the prem was still a more lucrative league than la liga for the decade that Messi and Ronaldo were there.
I‘d say timing was on the PL‘s side. Not to forget Beckham giving us a taste of how massive individual player marketing could be.

How would La Liga have developed without the superstars? More popular? I doubt it. More sustainable? Possibly. Less marketable? Definitely.
 
Messi was huge for La Liga, but spanish football is massive WorldWide, people will keep following spanish Football wether Messi is there or not.
EPL in 21th century is doing financially impecable, in general terms, when it comes to sponsorship/deals, and we have to go back to the early-mid 2000s for EPL to have a Balloon D'or podium (Henry, Cristiano and Lampard)...the whole 2010s, EPL didn't have a single player who could be disputed as best in the world, and that didn't affect them economically at all.

There is some proper bullshit that goes on with the Ballon d'Or, it's not any real great indicator of anything other than who is peoples favourite player at the time, it's got almost nothing to do with team success and some legit snobbery. 2011 Rooney was 5th, depsite us being CL finalist and league winners. Suarez was 6th, cause he scored 16 goals in season, I guess. 2018-2019 all English CL, Messi wins, Cristiano is 3rd, 22nd is Son.
 
There is some proper bullshit that goes on with the Ballon d'Or, it's not any real great indicator of anything other than who is peoples favourite player at the time, it's got almost nothing to do with team success and some legit snobbery. 2011 Rooney was 5th, depsite us being CL finalist and league winners. Suarez was 6th, cause he scored 16 goals in season, I guess. 2018-2019 all English CL, Messi wins, Cristiano is 3rd, 22nd is Son.
Copa America
 
There is some proper bullshit that goes on with the Ballon d'Or, it's not any real great indicator of anything other than who is peoples favourite player at the time, it's got almost nothing to do with team success and some legit snobbery. 2011 Rooney was 5th, depsite us being CL finalist and league winners. Suarez was 6th, cause he scored 16 goals in season, I guess. 2018-2019 all English CL, Messi wins, Cristiano is 3rd, 22nd is Son.

Messi absolutely deserved it in 2018, massive carry job. Hell, even Liverpool players like Mane were saying Messi deserved it over VVD
 
This pretty much sums up the problem. I’d add they’re not even big fans of the game either. A large proportion of footy fans aren‘t really footy fans. They are fan boys and girls. In the same way they follow the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys and buy every record no matter how shit the content, the Messi/Ronaldo fans will follow their idols. They don‘t care about La Liga or the PL.

I understand where the hope is coming from that La Liga without the massive stars is still going to be a huge success and have endless followers around the globe. I just don‘t believe it. Footy has changed. It isn‘t about the game anymore. Wherever the rich and the famous show up, that‘s where the money will be thrown.
Wonder how many people stopped watching the NBA when Jordan retired?
 
Wonder how many people stopped watching the NBA when Jordan retired?

Wouldn't use the NBA to defend yourself since it's probably the league with the least amount of team loyalty in the world (which is what the poster is saying about fans)
 
Wouldn't use the NBA to defend yourself since it's probably the league with the least amount of team loyalty in the world (which is what the poster is saying about fans)
I was agreeing with the poster...
 
A ton actually:


The retirement of Michael Jordan set in motion the decline in NBA ratings which continued for several years. Ratings for the 1999 NBA Finals (which in fairness, came after a lockout shortened season) were down significantly from the previous year, from an 18.7 to an 11.3.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki
NBA on television in the 1990s - Wikipedia
Yeah, thought as much. This is something that is akin to what might happen with Barca and la liga post Messi...
 
They went defensive, so it wasn't really an embarassment, but it was still a sad watch.
 
They went defensive, so it wasn't really an embarassment, but it was still a sad watch.
3-0 at home is pretty embarassing honestly. Worse, Bayern never even got out of 3rd gear
 
Zero shots on target, Luuk de Jong leading the line, 7th in the league. Tough times ahead
 
Wonder how long they'll be able to keep De Jong for. Frenkie, that is. Luuk is obviously unobtainable.
 
Wonder how long they'll be able to keep De Jong for. Frenkie, that is. Luuk is obviously unobtainable.

For a while probably. He only extended last October he has 5 years remaining. Barca will likely pull a Daniel Levy and not let him leave. They’re building a team around him and Pedri, they’ll be too fecked if they let either leave. They are the only bright sparks in a sea of negativity.