Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

Castia

Full Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2011
Messages
18,400
I’m guessing the new recruits are on huge wages too considering they’re free transfers

What a mess
 

Ali Dia

Full Member
Joined
May 10, 2013
Messages
14,321
Location
Souness's Super Sub/George Weahs Talented Cousin
Regarding De Jong, he was courted by PSG and the deal was hijacked at the eleventh hour. In that context 400K€ gross is somewhat plausible. After all it was reported PSG have given Wijnaldum 165K£ after tax which is more or less in line with that.
Really? Still though. Player would have surely chosen Barca if they played hard ball. I think they panicked as to how it would look if PSG beat them to another big player… you can understand the free transfer lads breaking 300 after Ramsey set the precedent
 
Joined
May 22, 2017
Messages
13,122
Rakuten alone said they would only pay half, if Messi leaves. Not to mention all other sponsors. Messis impact on the sponsoring contracts is massive. Barcelona have to pay penaltys, if Messi doesnt play in friendly games. Also Barcelona is depending on tourism more than any other football club on earth. People from all over the world travel to barcelona and pay 200 € to see Messi live in the Camp Nou, they also pay 30 € to see his Ballon D'Ors and golden shoes in the museum and visit the megastore afterwards to buy the little son a messi shirt. You just have to go downstairs and see the shirt printing queue. Every second shirt has the 10 on its back.
If you consider the massive positive impact Messi has on the club, his salary is not a problem. Wages of Coutinho, Dembele, Griezmann, Sergi Roberto, Busquets, Pique and a lot more are way too high for their actual performance.
I went on a tour of The Noun Camp about 12 years ago, it was shit. They had cardboard cutouts of players you could take pictures of! No thanks.

Why did I go? Messi? No. Because I was in Barcelona.

a few years ago, I went to watch a Real Madrid game, can’t remember who they played, I know Ronaldo started - would I have gone if Ronaldo wasn’t there, yes of course, I only went because I was in Madrid.

there have always been tours of stadiums, and matches at those stadiums - and when you are at a club as big as Real or Barca, who plays for them doesn’t matter.

you can also get tickets to matches for far less than €200.

just for clarity, I assume therefore that Rakuten’s sponsorship is double that of any other club that doesn’t have Messi playing for them?
 

Tom Cato

Godt nyttår!
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
7,582
Messi put them where they are now in all fairness. They have never been as big as they are now.

Messi has signed what, 9 or 10 contracts during his time in Barcelona. Some of them in conjunction with adding a release clause to the tune of 700 million euro.

Leo Messi didn't do a thing, this is all on Barcelona and the board for even offering contracts of this magnitude. They were operating without fiscal responsibility and oversight. The way the club has run its finances is beyond shocking and should border on the criminal. They've been given ENORMOUS loans they can't pay back and are technically insolvent. The only reason they have not been liquidated is because the Catalan government won't allow it.

You can't blame people who sign employment contracts for the mess of their employer.
 

elmo

Can never have too many Eevees
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
13,378
Location
AKA: Slapanut Goat Smuggla
Messi has signed what, 9 or 10 contracts during his time in Barcelona. Some of them in conjunction with adding a release clause to the tune of 700 million euro.

Leo Messi didn't do a thing, this is all on Barcelona and the board for even offering contracts of this magnitude. They were operating without fiscal responsibility and oversight. The way the club has run its finances is beyond shocking and should border on the criminal. They've been given ENORMOUS loans they can't pay back and are technically insolvent. The only reason they have not been liquidated is because the Catalan government won't allow it.

You can't blame people who sign employment contracts for the mess of their employer.
You really think Barcelona gave Messi a higher contract than what Messi would have accepted?

Barcelona fecked up by offering ridiculous salaries, Messi is just the biggest one because his high pay made everyone else demand way more than what other clubs would offer.
 

Iker Quesadillas

Full Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2021
Messages
3,998
Supports
Real Madrid
Are Real in a similar situation as I assume their wages must be as insane?
Real Madrid had their wage cap raised. They've made more money on sales than Barcelona since they basically stopped doing business once the pandemic began.
 

De Portago

Full Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2017
Messages
599
Supports
Red Star
Really? Still though. Player would have surely chosen Barca if they played hard ball. I think they panicked as to how it would look if PSG beat them to another big player… you can understand the free transfer lads breaking 300 after Ramsey set the precedent
I guess that's what happened. They were sure they'll get him due to long established connections with Ajax and then panicked when he seemed to be on the verge of signing for PSG. I just wanted to point out that PSG isn't averse themselves on offering ridiculous wages from time to time, it might just have been the case of matching PSG's offer.

NET is what @The Purley King was claiming, that isn’t even slightly plausible.
Agreed 100%.
 

acnumber9

Full Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2006
Messages
22,290
I thought the Pjanic deal it was just a swop with Juventus for Arthur?
I’m pretty sure that was a book cooking exercise. Weren’t the values vastly inflated above what any sane club would pay so they could account for the sale in one years accounts and spread the cost of the purchase over several to comply with FFP?
 
Last edited:

Charlie Foley

Full Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
18,374
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
Just those three?


  • A huge part of problem is the amortisation of previous bug money signings

  • 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
This is what I was saying in the other thread. Just blaming Messi gives all of Barca’s other acts far too much credit
  • 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.
:lol: Yeah I bet he is
 

Tom Cato

Godt nyttår!
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
7,582
Rakuten alone said they would only pay half, if Messi leaves. Not to mention all other sponsors. Messis impact on the sponsoring contracts is massive. Barcelona have to pay penaltys, if Messi doesnt play in friendly games. Also Barcelona is depending on tourism more than any other football club on earth. People from all over the world travel to barcelona and pay 200 € to see Messi live in the Camp Nou, they also pay 30 € to see his Ballon D'Ors and golden shoes in the museum and visit the megastore afterwards to buy the little son a messi shirt. You just have to go downstairs and see the shirt printing queue. Every second shirt has the 10 on its back.
If you consider the massive positive impact Messi has on the club, his salary is not a problem. Wages of Coutinho, Dembele, Griezmann, Sergi Roberto, Busquets, Pique and a lot more are way too high for their actual performance.

I think this is gravely overestimating the importance of Leo Messi's influence on global travel.

Camp Nou averages some 70k+ spectators every year. The club is one of the biggest in the world, they were that before Messi and they will remain so after Messi. According to club estimates, around 10,000 matchgoing fans at Camp Nou every week are tourists.

As I'm sure you're aware, Barcelona is one of the biggest tourist cities in Europe, its a city with a more than 2000 year old history that now includes some of the most spectacular architecture in Europe, seaside locations, sights,food and events all over city. The vast majority of people who visit Barcelona go there for the city. A match at Camp Nou is typically a added event during the visit, not the purpose of the visit. Sure some go to watch a game and travel back the next day, and even fewer go there so see Leo Messi play. Of course he's a pull and the spearhead of a Bacelona team that reached its zenith 5 years ago.

But re: the megastore: The club earns only a very small percentage on the shirt sales. This is a common urban myth. The club sponsors earn the majority of the money on the shirt sales. They are sponsors who'se primary motivation is to recoup their investment, and one of thos methods is indeed shirt sales. Millions of shirt sales that go primarily to the one benefactor: Nike. The clubs themselves mostly recoup 7-15% at the high end. Liverpool actually takes back 20% on their most recent deal.

Think of equipment sponsorships as licensing deals, where the kit sponsors license the right to print and sell club shirts and merchandise. The club gets a small percentage back for the license fee. The sponsor gets the revenue from mechandise sale + global exposure which is set at a fixed value that varies with markets.

Clubs making the money from shirt sales is just not feasible for a simple reason: Manufacturing. They are not manufacturers, they're a football club. Global logistics, customer service, hardware, marketing etc etc, all of that is best handled by the very companies who are international juggernauts to begin with.

Leo Messi is the most important player in the clubs history, but labeling him as a big factor for driving tourism to a city that sees some 15+ million visitors anually, is being a bit generous.
 

Oldyella

Full Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
5,838
Messi has signed what, 9 or 10 contracts during his time in Barcelona. Some of them in conjunction with adding a release clause to the tune of 700 million euro.

Leo Messi didn't do a thing, this is all on Barcelona and the board for even offering contracts of this magnitude. They were operating without fiscal responsibility and oversight. The way the club has run its finances is beyond shocking and should border on the criminal. They've been given ENORMOUS loans they can't pay back and are technically insolvent. The only reason they have not been liquidated is because the Catalan government won't allow it.

You can't blame people who sign employment contracts for the mess of their employer.
Yes, there was no negotiation at all, Barca simply offered a huge figure over what Messi wanted and so he said yes. St Messi wouldn't dream of asking for a penny more than he was offered.
 

MikeUpNorth

Wobbles like a massive pair of tits
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
19,938
I don’t understand why they’re still signing players, free transfers or not. They don’t even need them.

Why are they fighting this hard to keep Messi when he’s on the brink of retiring? Refusing to let him go last year was insane.
 

CanadianUtd

New Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Messages
313
Supports
Vancouver, Boston
Yerry Mina+Andre Gomes+£42m for Pogba?


yeah, United counter with James+Lingard+£40m for De Jong :wenger:
 

Tom Cato

Godt nyttår!
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
7,582
You really think Barcelona gave Messi a higher contract than what Messi would have accepted?

Barcelona fecked up by offering ridiculous salaries, Messi is just the biggest one because his high pay made everyone else demand way more than what other clubs would offer.
Barcelona made a mess the moment they put themselves in a situation where renewing a contract so many times was even a necessity.
 

Tom Cato

Godt nyttår!
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
7,582
Yes, there was no negotiation at all, Barca simply offered a huge figure over what Messi wanted and so he said yes. St Messi wouldn't dream of asking for a penny more than he was offered.
Are you mad at Messi for taking a contract he was offered?

I don't care about Messi one bit, I'm just not going to let this discussion go along without putting the club itself at the very first of the blame queue.
 

elmo

Can never have too many Eevees
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
13,378
Location
AKA: Slapanut Goat Smuggla
Barcelona made a mess the moment they put themselves in a situation where renewing a contract so many times was even a necessity.
Hilarious how Ronaldo was always portrayed as the egoistic and greedy bugger when in reality it's Messi being the one with an annual huge pay increase just for him to re-sign.
 

Tom Cato

Godt nyttår!
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
7,582
Hilarious how Ronaldo was always portrayed as the egoistic and greedy bugger when in reality it's Messi being the one with an annual huge pay increase just for him to re-sign.
Ronaldo and Messi are employees. The clubs are solely and exclusively responsible for offering them the contracts they have signed during their careers. Its ALL on the clubs.
 

giorno

boob novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
26,580
Supports
Real Madrid
true to some extent. Pijanic value was spread across amortization period
Not to some extent. Player swaps involve agreeing on a price for the two players getting swapped, and then selling said players to each other at those prices
 

elmo

Can never have too many Eevees
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
13,378
Location
AKA: Slapanut Goat Smuggla
Ronaldo and Messi are employees. The clubs are solely and exclusively responsible for offering them the contracts they have signed during their careers. Its ALL on the clubs.
I don't think you've any clue on how contract negotiations work if you think it's all on the club.
 

Marwood

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
4,322
Ronaldo and Messi are employees. The clubs are solely and exclusively responsible for offering them the contracts they have signed during their careers. Its ALL on the clubs.
Not quite that simple.

Messi knows his place in football and no doubt will have put in an extraordinary financial demand just becausehe could. I very much doubt Barcelona came up with that salary figure of their own accord.

Of course Barcelona could have said no so it's ultimately on them. But Messi will have milked the pretty unique position he's in where the player is almost bigger than the club.
 

Von Mistelroum

Full Member
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
4,041
I hate to be that person but I don’t see this being anywhere near the problem it should be for them. They’ll suddenly be fine when a huge mystery loan comes along and all of this will be brushed under the carpet.
 

DixieDean

Everton Fan
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
5,297
Location
Liverpool
Supports
Everton
I hate to be that person but I don’t see this being anywhere near the problem it should be for them. They’ll suddenly be fine when a huge mystery loan comes along and all of this will be brushed under the carpet.
Yeah, them and R Madrid are too big to fail.
 

Halftrack

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2014
Messages
3,950
Location
Chair
Are you mad at Messi for taking a contract he was offered?

I don't care about Messi one bit, I'm just not going to let this discussion go along without putting the club itself at the very first of the blame queue.
In all likelihood, Messi and his agents rejected the contract he was offered and made a counter proposal, and after a bit of back and forth they ended up with the agreed contract.

Barcelona are fecking idiots, make no mistake. They tied the club's identity to Messi, and in turn made themselves too dependent on him, thereby (to them) necessitating paying him ludicrous wages to keep him around. Messi exploited this in full. Whether he was right or wrong in doing this is, clearly, a point up for debate, but he's a convicted tax dodger, so I'm not inclined to cut him any slack. He's a greedy cnut.
 

elmo

Can never have too many Eevees
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
13,378
Location
AKA: Slapanut Goat Smuggla
Yes I am comletely oblivious to how any of that contract stuff works.
Do you really think Barcelona magically grabbed a ridiculous number and offered it to Messi?

He was being a greedy twat and fair play to him because he called Barcelona's bluff and they gave it to him like the badly ran club they've been.

Barcelona should have exposed him and said his demands were unsustainable. Let everyone knows what a greedy twat he is and watch his sponsors retreat.
 

ThomasEmil

Invisible Herrera Watcher
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
Messages
5,435
Location
Denmark
I don't understand, why they brought in big summer signings, if they knew they couldn't afford it?
 

giorno

boob novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
26,580
Supports
Real Madrid
Yes, there was no negotiation at all, Barca simply offered a huge figure over what Messi wanted and so he said yes. St Messi wouldn't dream of asking for a penny more than he was offered.
There was a long, drawn out and brutal negotiation involving a board member being called out by players and losing his position over it, and in the end, barcelona caved to Messi's demands
 

adexkola

Doesn't understand sportswashing.
Joined
Mar 17, 2008
Messages
48,410
Location
The CL is a glorified FA Cup set to music
Supports
orderly disembarking on planes
Are you mad at Messi for taking a contract he was offered?

I don't care about Messi one bit, I'm just not going to let this discussion go along without putting the club itself at the very first of the blame queue.
How dare he.

He should have taken 100k, knowing that the club would have not spunked the savings on another stupid purchase. Better yet he should have offered to become the CFO, handle the management of the savings the club would have made on his discounted salary.
 

Lynty

Full Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Messages
3,094
Bizarre how some people are laying blame on the players.

If I thought I could negotiate a better salary with my employer, I would. Why should I be concerned on what the business can afford to pay me? Why should Messi be concerned about Barca's ability to pay him? His job is to play football - which he has done to an exceptional standard and provided Barca fans with over a decade of entertainment and success. His job isn't to oversee the clubs finances.

The board are solely responsible for this mess.

There was a long, drawn out and brutal negotiation involving a board member being called out by players and losing his position over it, and in the end, barcelona caved to Messi's demands
Looking at how Barca has been run recently, Messi forcing out Bartomeu was more beneficial then halfling his own wages. Don't forget, Bartomeu was arrested for funding a defamation campaign against his own players to paint the board in the better light. This high school levels of pettiness. He was clearly unfit to run a club and Messi was the only one with enough power to force him out.
 
Last edited:

anant

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
8,259
Let's be honest here. Barca were fecked because of some very high profile flops and the wages they are earning not because of Messi's wages.

140m for Coutinho, 120m for Griezmann and 105m for Dembele plus their insane wages is what has led them here. This is in addition to Umtiti, Lenglet, etc. also not turning out to be the players Barca hope they would become. Assuming the rules aren't relaxed I'm quite certain, they'd have to sell/release these players for peanuts along with a few big names as well like FDJ, Ter Stegan, etc. (like the article stated)

Remove Messi and the club loses significant commercial value in Asia and Americas (maybe not so much in Europe) - a good chunk of people travel to Nou camp just for him. A lot of people who started following football in late 00s and early 10s are barca fans because of him, so I think net-net he is earning them a lot more than the club makes off the back of him. And this is excluding sporting impact - I don't think Barca would have won a trophy in last 5 odd years ad they not had him.