Barca trying to terminate the contracts of Umtiti and Pjanic

Griezmann is the one I simply can't understand. Even when Barca bought him, he wasn't such a top player that he could demand such a high wage in a world when other top players at the same level are generally all on 200-400k. How does it happen that they gave him over 800k? I really wonder whether that deal involved some kind of shady kickback or something.
He was quite good to be fair. Was in contention for Ballon D'Or in 2016 (was a miss away from getting it), and lead France to glory in 2018. He was arguably the best of the rest after Messi/Ronaldo and possibly Lewandowski. It also did not help that Messi was in 2.5m or so, so he actually took only 1/3 of Messi's salary.

As good as Messi is, when you give him 2.5-3m/week salary, of course, the other world-class players will look for their share of the pie. Paying your second-best player 'only' at 30% of your best player salary is not irrational by any means, in fact, in pretty much every other club is closer than that.
 
I agree. But Messi is currently not signed and Barca still breaches the salary cap by a lot. So the current attempt to clear the wage bill is not down to Messi‘s contract.

Do you have a reliable source for that? If so can you post a link?
 

If true, and without any help from outside, they are in deep trouble. Question will be if one BIG club falls (and we know that there are few other big ones in economic problems) would it be domino effect though football. Maybe that would be a good restart for the game.
 
Nothing can be claimed with complete accuracy without having access to the financial records. That being said, regarding Griezmann, there were credible rumors flying during the summer of 2018 when he rejected Barcelona and signed an extension with ATM that he received an absurd salary, even eclipsing Ronaldo at Real Madrid who was at something like ~35M gross per year at the time.

If true, it makes sense to an extent if ATM were really hellbent on keeping him, and that means that Barcelona 'only' made the mistake of matching his already crazy pay packet (obviously they shouldn't have bought him at all considering the obvious tactical issues but that's a different matter altogether).
 
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Even if they don't re-sign Messi, they're still £200m over the cap, right?
 
Griezmann is the one I simply can't understand. Even when Barca bought him, he wasn't such a top player that he could demand such a high wage in a world when other top players at the same level are generally all on 200-400k.
Griezmann already had those wages at Atletico. His contract with Barcelona was for slightly less money than the one he left behind.
 
Does anyone know where Bartomeu is? Definitely owed a pint.
 
He was quite good to be fair. Was in contention for Ballon D'Or in 2016 (was a miss away from getting it), and lead France to glory in 2018. He was arguably the best of the rest after Messi/Ronaldo and possibly Lewandowski. It also did not help that Messi was in 2.5m or so, so he actually took only 1/3 of Messi's salary.

As good as Messi is, when you give him 2.5-3m/week salary, of course, the other world-class players will look for their share of the pie. Paying your second-best player 'only' at 30% of your best player salary is not irrational by any means, in fact, in pretty much every other club is closer than that.

This doesnt' matter because no one knew about Messi's contract until Bartomeu left the presidency and misteriusly the contract was leaked. Only 4 persons knew about this. Messi, his agent (father), Bartomeu and another sport director i believe.
 
Even if they don't re-sign Messi, they're still £200m over the cap, right?

It is euros, not pounds.

And I don't think so. The numbers don't line up.

If they resign Messi, they will need to reduce wages by €200m, otherwise by around €60-70m to accommodate Aguero and Depay.
 
He was quite good to be fair. Was in contention for Ballon D'Or in 2016 (was a miss away from getting it), and lead France to glory in 2018. He was arguably the best of the rest after Messi/Ronaldo and possibly Lewandowski. It also did not help that Messi was in 2.5m or so, so he actually took only 1/3 of Messi's salary.

As good as Messi is, when you give him 2.5-3m/week salary, of course, the other world-class players will look for their share of the pie. Paying your second-best player 'only' at 30% of your best player salary is not irrational by any means, in fact, in pretty much every other club is closer than that.
He had already declined before that move to Barca. Was considerably worse that year before the move compared to the year it fell through. I remember most people predicting him to flop really hard too. Was class in his prime, but he was past that when he moved.
 
How can a club shave off 200m from their wages ?
Even without Messi, it'll be over 100m.. right? That's 9 players on 200k/week.

And Messi is almost certainly..

What the feck is going on at Barca ? Is there any good article/podcast that talks about it ?
 
Excellent article here from the The Athletic https://theathletic.co.uk/2689613/2...?article_source=search&search_query=barcalona

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

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

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

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

The amortisation of players signed by the previous board alone adds up to €144m already accounted for in the books for the coming season — including €20m for Philippe Coutinho, €27m for Antoine Griezmann and €24m for Ousmane Dembele.

  • Messi and Barca seem to have reached a deal for him to stay but it can not be announced as they can not register him under the current problems
  • They can not register any of Depay, Aguero, Garcia and Royal without clearing 200M
  • Messi is on top of that, so even if he took a 90% paycut they currently cannot register him
  • There is talk of deferring his salary as well and guaranteeing him a massively well paid ambassadors job at the club in the future, but there are tx issues with this and Messi is nervous of the Spanish tax system for obvious reasons.
Whoever stays or leaves, Messi will likely also have to take a huge pay cut — maybe even something like 80 or 90 per cent — to stay at Barca. The club are looking at ways of making this up to him — such as deferring payment into the future, or guaranteeing him a well-paid ambassador role after his playing career is over. There are however serious tax implications for all these potential solutions, and Messi and his family have learned from experience not to cut corners with the Spanish tax man.

Barca are fecked and really really fecked, Bartomeu has a lot to answer for, he has bankrupted the club, this could see them go under and so far LaLiga is sticking to it's guns, Preisdent of the league Javier Tebas is holding firm

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

He also pointed out that La Liga has survived the losses of Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo in recent years without hurting its sponsorship or broadcasting deals.

This thread needs a new title along the lines of Barca implode and go bust!

EDIT: actually think this deserves it own thread, it's so much bigger than Pjanic and Umtiti.
 
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Given their dire financial situation, I wish we'll have a bid for one of De Jong or Pedri. Even Dest could be considered for the RB competition we're looking for. Given that they have to raise 200 odd million, surely the prospect of raising 50-60 from one sale could force their hand.
 
Given their dire financial situation, I wish we'll have a bid for one of De Jong or Pedri. Even Dest could be considered for the RB competition we're looking for. Given that they have to raise 200 odd million, surely the prospect of raising 50-60 from one sale could force their hand.

They don't have to raise money. They have to reduce wages. They could sell any of their players for 200m it wouldn't change a thing in terms of their current predicament.
 
They don't have to raise money. They have to reduce wages. They could sell any of their players for 200m it wouldn't change a thing in terms of their current predicament.

Don't think that's true. This is the line mentioned in the Athletic article, "With sales of players like Firpo and Todibo they have raised 26.5M that's about 10% of what they need so far.".

They need to show savings or hard cash for 200 million. Don't see it happening just from their deadwood, however expensive that deadwood might be. At least one big gun is going to go out. Can we take advantage of it?
 
They don't have to raise money. They have to reduce wages. They could sell any of their players for 200m it wouldn't change a thing in terms of their current predicament.

That’s not strictly true; selling players does get their wages off their books which goes towards meeting their salary cap requirements.
 
He was quite good to be fair. Was in contention for Ballon D'Or in 2016 (was a miss away from getting it), and lead France to glory in 2018. He was arguably the best of the rest after Messi/Ronaldo and possibly Lewandowski. It also did not help that Messi was in 2.5m or so, so he actually took only 1/3 of Messi's salary.

As good as Messi is, when you give him 2.5-3m/week salary, of course, the other world-class players will look for their share of the pie. Paying your second-best player 'only' at 30% of your best player salary is not irrational by any means, in fact, in pretty much every other club is closer than that.

remember the 800k quoted for griezmann is net of tax! So the cost to Barca will be around 1.6m per week. So he’s not that far off messi really.
 
I think they have mixed net and gross up. No way can Griezmann be on more than €800k a week (surely?!?!?!? Obviously cannot tell as Barca have been hitting the pipe way too hard.) Whilst Messi is low (probably because the author couldn't believe it was plausible he would be on €2m+ a week.)

remember the 800k quoted for griezmann is net of tax! So the cost to Barca will be around 1.6m per week. So he’s not that far off messi really.

Probably is 800k net.

Total first team players wage bill was €550m including image rights and the €62m Squad not registrable with LFP at the start of 2020.

Is on page 290 of last annual report:

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/club...ic-plan/commissions-and-bodies/annual-reports
 
Explains why Barca is so desperate for the Super League to go ahead, without it they are fecked.
 
Don't think that's true. This is the line mentioned in the Athletic article, "With sales of players like Firpo and Todibo they have raised 26.5M that's about 10% of what they need so far.".

They need to show savings or hard cash for 200 million. Don't see it happening just from their deadwood, however expensive that deadwood might be. At least one big gun is going to go out. Can we take advantage of it?

De Jong would be my choice instantly takes our midfield up a notch, problem is he will break our wage structure. Dest and Pedri are the ones we can get without hurting the wage structure.
 
De Jong would be my choice instantly takes our midfield up a notch, problem is he will break our wage structure. Dest and Pedri are the ones we can get without hurting the wage structure.

Well if those figures posted earlier are net then he is on €800k a week. Not going to happen.
 
This doesnt' matter because no one knew about Messi's contract until Bartomeu left the presidency and misteriusly the contract was leaked. Only 4 persons knew about this. Messi, his agent (father), Bartomeu and another sport director i believe.
Uh? Everyone who paid attention to it at the time(2017) knew about it. It was even leaked by football leaks
 
They need to let Messi go and try to rebuilt the team, they are in risk of going under and I'm sure they will be out of the CL soon UEFA check the team's books. The club should always be above any player.
 
If you sell a player, that's getting their wages off the books

It's would but the likes of Pedri wouldn't cause a dent on the enormous wage bill. Dest, Pedri, Fati, Ter Stegern and De Jong at a push are probably the easier to sell players but those 1st 4 combined earn less than Griezmann.
 
There’s a lot of noise without substance when facts are clearly showing your club is on a downward trajectory and fast. Not only are you in deep financial trouble, you can’t even register the players you’ve bought to get you out of it…

United may not have recent trophies, but atleast we can finance ourselves…I’d take long terms success over 2 years of mediocrity for $200 million any day… because with where your club is and the players you’ve “purchased this summer” that is what you’re staring down the barrel of.

financing yourselves is great but when you have nothing to show for it trophy wise, it doesn’t mean very much. I’d take Barca’s last 7 years over United easily. Hell, I’d take Barca’s last two years over United. But that’s just me. I also agree Barca are in a huge mess right now but contrary to everyone else rejoicing in the club being bankrupt I think they’ll sort it out eventually but it’ll take quite some time. When the season starts in setember and if the players still can’t get registered I’ll be more than happy to revisit this with you :)

good luck in the coming season.
 
financing yourselves is great but when you have nothing to show for it trophy wise, it doesn’t mean very much. I’d take Barca’s last 7 years over United easily. Hell, I’d take Barca’s last two years over United. But that’s just me. I also agree Barca are in a huge mess right now but contrary to everyone else rejoicing in the club being bankrupt I think they’ll sort it out eventually but it’ll take quite some time. When the season starts in setember and if the players still can’t get registered I’ll be more than happy to revisit this with you :)

good luck in the coming season.
And that is the laughable problem with exactly what is going on at your club

It is complete and utter short term thinking and you’ve completely fecked yourselves in the process. Exactly the same reason as why holding onto Messi has left you in the current mess and will continue to do so.

rip the bandaid off, eat shit for a few years and get over it. But your arrogant fan base and the worlds stupidest ownership model won’t let you do that because members demand immediate results.
 
And that is the laughable problem with exactly what is going on at your club

It is complete and utter short term thinking and you’ve completely fecked yourselves in the process. Exactly the same reason as why holding onto Messi has left you in the current mess and will continue to do so.

rip the bandaid off, eat shit for a few years and get over it. But your arrogant fan base and the worlds stupidest ownership model won’t let you do that because members demand immediate results.

you’re way way off here. Messi will only play for two more years anyway, we are still winning trophies. Messi isn’t the issue it’s the other bad contracts handed out. You keep missing that. Barca have their issues, but the arrogance of fans from a club that has hardly won anything in nearly seven years doesn’t surprise me. Barca need to dump the other players, not Messi. They’re in an absolute mess but they’ll get through it. It’s always been a club with a volatile history.
 
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He coud ask for a lot less.

It does not matter if he asks for wages their second keeper is earning. He still cannot be signed. Barca needs to look to dump players like Griezman. Pjanic, umtiti and Countinho. It's good for them in the long run. Messi needs to get paid.

He was treated like a nobody last year when he wanted to leave. Mind blowing how they treated the best player in their history. He does not owe them anything. Fact is he will get paid more than what he is asking from Barcelona if he left for City or Psg.
 
you’re way way off here. Messi will only play for two more years anyway, we are still winning trophies. Messi isn’t the issue it’s the other bad contracts handed out. You keep missing that. Barca have their issues, but the arrogance of fans from a club that has hardly won anything in nearly seven years doesn’t surprise me. Barca need to dump the other players, not Messi. They’re in an absolute mess but they’ll get through it. It’s always been a club with a volatile history.

It's a good thing Messi is sticking to the wages he is demanding. Which means they have to get rid of players like griezman, pjanic, umtiti and countinho. The posters here have an agenda against messi. They are not getting rid of half their starting eleven just to keep messi. Horrible posting going on in this site. Getting rid of them will be good for the team in the long run.

He was also disrespected last year. Greatest player in their teams history treated like a nobody. Fact is if he was to leave he can get more than what he is demanding from barcelona playing for City or PSG. He does not owe them anything at all.

Get paid Messi.
 
Getting paid hundreds of millions ≠ treated like a nobody.
 
It's a good thing Messi is sticking to the wages he is demanding. Which means they have to get rid of players like griezman, pjanic, umtiti and countinho. The posters here have an agenda against messi. They are not getting rid of half their starting eleven just to keep messi. Horrible posting going on in this site. Getting rid of them will be good for the team in the long run.

He was also disrespected last year. Greatest player in their teams history treated like a nobody. Fact is if he was to leave he can get more than what he is demanding from barcelona playing for City or PSG. He does not owe them anything at all.

Get paid Messi.
Fergie used to say all the time nobody is bigger than the club

wise words

does Messi want to be remembered rightly as a legend or a catalyst for bankrupting one of the worlds biggest clubs?
 
you’re way way off here. Messi will only play for two more years anyway, we are still winning trophies. Messi isn’t the issue it’s the other bad contracts handed out. You keep missing that. Barca have their issues, but the arrogance of fans from a club that has hardly won anything in nearly seven years doesn’t surprise me. Barca need to dump the other players, not Messi. They’re in an absolute mess but they’ll get through it. It’s always been a club with a volatile history.

Well, if United also kept spending 10 times more than what they actually could, they would have won more. And imagine doing it in a league with only 2 other big spenders..

But you are right the problem is not, at least only, Messi. After all Barca without Messi would have 2 cls less and many league less. He kinda deserve a huge contract since he is bigger than the club itself.
 
Well, if United also kept spending 10 times more than what they actually could, they would have won more. And imagine doing it in a league with only 2 other big spenders..

But you are right the problem is not, at least only, Messi. After all Barca without Messi would have 2 cls less and many league less. He kinda deserve a huge contract since he is bigger than the club itself.

fair points, and Barca’s spending has led to this glorious mess. But I’m glad you see it as not so much Messi’s contract the issue but just about ever other contract handed out. I mean Sergei Roberto gets paid more than benzema ffs :lol: