Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

giorno

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Does anyone think La Liga has been really impractical here by being very rigid with this rule?
They have been. For 2 seasons(19/20 and 20/21). Not the rest of the league's fault barcelona refused to adapt to the situation
 

Fergie's Assist

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I actually think that Barca's crazy mess started with Ed Woodward's "watch this space." We broke the market first with big player signings for big bucks (ADM, Pogba) It looked like Ed was showing off the financial muscle of United.

But United couldn't keep up when PSG raised the bar even more and spent ridiculous amounts of money on Neymar, Mbappe. It was stupid of Barcelona to sell Neymar just cos they got 200m. Even worse, now the new players they signed all cost more cos of Neymar price and Messi wages. (Griezmann, Coutinho etc)

It looked like a long fight between PSG and Barca. But Barca shouldn't have played into PSG's hand. Now two of their best players are at PSG as a result.
 

Isotope

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:lol: Undisputed GOAT Mercenary. But it's Barca. Go suck 'em dry, Messi!!
 

giorno

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Except he's on 400K currently, and Barcelona gain nothing from selling him.
barcelona can't afford to pay him that right now, he's already had to cut his salary and now they're asking him to accept deferred payment to a future date

I don't think wages would be much of an issue right now
 

De Portago

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barcelona can't afford to pay him that right now, he's already had to cut his salary and now they're asking him to accept deferred payment to a future date

I don't think wages would be much of an issue right now
It's still a valid contract though, unless the club literally disappears (which obviously won't happen) he will eventually get every last cent. Considering the current situation, aside PSG maybe no one will offer him that much, that seems certain.
 

De Portago

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What happens, worst case scenario, if Barca can't clear all that money ?
As far as I know, nothing. They can't register any new players while they are in salary cap violation and that is it. All the players already under contract remain registered even though they are over the cap.
 

MadMike

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It was stupid of Barcelona to sell Neymar just cos they got 200m. Even worse, now the new players they signed all cost more cos of Neymar price and Messi wages. (Griezmann, Coutinho etc)
What is stupid, is commenting on stuff so well documented and yet applying your own outlandish fantasies over them.

PSG paid Neymar’s release clause. A release clause that every player in La Liga has as per Spanish law. There was nothing Barca could do.
 

Lemansky

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What is stupid, is commenting on stuff so well documented and yet applying your own outlandish fantasies over them.

PSG paid Neymar’s release clause. A release clause that every player in La Liga has as per Spanish law. There was nothing Barca could do.
Well.. they could have put a higher release clause in his contract.
 

MadMike

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Well.. they could have put a higher release clause in his contract.
What tells you that?

His release clause was more than double the previous world transfer record. And players have to agree to release clauses which can only be altered with contract negotiations. They obviously don’t agree to completely absurd clauses otherwise each player would have a €10B release clause and it would render the whole system pointless.
 

Flytan

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Or maybe he was just emotional leaving a club that has given him so much since he was like 12?
I mean being an awesome footballer doesn't make you a robot.
I have no doubt he was attached to barcelona. I also have no doubt one of his advisors told him to cry a bit extra in order to make him look better
 

Beans

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Where do Barca play Coutinho and Greizmann? On the wing or in midfield?

Such strange transfers, two #10s on a team that doesn't play with one.
 

Lemansky

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What tells you that?

His release clause was more than double the previous world transfer record. And players have to agree to release clauses which can only be altered with contract negotiations. They obviously don’t agree to completely absurd clauses otherwise each player would have a €10B release clause and it would render the whole system pointless.
You made a statement that there was nothing Barcelona could do, which is wrong. They could have put a higher release clause in his contract. These contracts all have artificially high release clauses. Benzema is like 1 billion, Vinicius 750 million, Modric 750 million, Bale 450 million etc. Think Busquets has a release clause of 500 mill. Neymar had a release clause much closer to his market price and that was a mistake.
 

Stacks

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Poll Question:

Was gonna make a thread but maybe should just ask here.

Does the current financial plight of Real and Barca in some ways vindicate the spending policies of Man Utd, Glazers and Woodwood as a non oil club, or do you feel we should have swung for the fences every season and spent 200m each year since Fergie retired?
 

Iker Quesadillas

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I'd have thought it's precisely because of Covid, that it's important that the authorities enforce sensible, financial prudence. Before Covid, there was a sense of invincibility surrounding the football gravy train. But the last couple of years has shown us how important it is to operate within your means.

The 70% wage bill figure is enormous, and almost certainly reflects the drop in revenue due to Covid already. No business would countenance having a wage bill % that high.

Besides, reductions in revenue due to Covid don't nearly explain the Barcelona shitshow. They had predicted revenue of €1billion before covid, then saw revenue of €700m, a reduction of 30%.

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/barcelona-revenue-target-coronavirus-josep-bartomeu
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news...uction-2019-20-coronavirus-bartomeu-elections

(wish I'd seen these articles earlier by the way, rather than trying to reverse engineer the same figures from Laporte's comments on Messi's wages)

Had Covid not happened, and they had hit their targets. You'd still be looking at a wage bill % of 81% with Messi still there, and 70% without him.
You are saying 81% of 1 bn revenues? So 800m? Their wage bill was 500m in 2018-2019 and 443m in 2019-2020. That was already considerably higher than the 2nd highest wage bill.
 

diarm

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You are saying 81% of 1 bn revenues? So 800m? Their wage bill was 500m in 2018-2019 and 443m in 2019-2020. That was already considerably higher than the 2nd highest wage bill.
There wage bill is currently €700m according to Laporte. It was €807m with Messi.

Knowing what we know now, I'd say the figures reported in 2019 and 2020 were far below what was actually happening.
 
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stefan92

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Poll Question:

Was gonna make a thread but maybe should just ask here.

Does the current financial plight of Real and Barca in some ways vindicate the spending policies of Man Utd, Glazers and Woodwood as a non oil club, or do you feel we should have swung for the fences every season and spent 200m each year since Fergie retired?
I don't think you can compare that. Did United spend a reasonable amount of money during the last years? Absolutely, United is a profitable business, unlike Barca. But the discussion about the Glazers surely always is not about the total amount of money United is spending, but that people would have liked more money used for the club instead of dividends for the owners. Less greedy owners would have allowed to invest 50m more in the squad per season or so.
 

diarm

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The problem hasn't really been with how much the Glazers have spent on transfers or wages, more with how it has been spent.

The fact that they saw the club as a business first and football club second, has reflected in the poor decision making and money wasted over the past 15 years. It was short term thinking and it back fired on them.

There is no doubt that has changed for the better since Ole came in. Hopefully it will continue to do so and hopefully they begin to spend more of the money the club generates on the stadium and club infrastructure as well as on the squad.
 

Josep Dowling

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what is the point of taking any measure about covid then?

every single govern/league took measures to handle the situation.
premier example: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-financial-rules-due-to-coronavirus-ssjkknrk6

are you against it?

laliga didn't relax a single thing. for laliga it is like covid didnt exist. you need to adjust your situation to covid within this summer. that is crazy.

how on earth helps to you to be forced to release over 50% of your salaries in 2 months? you are forcing to close extremely shitty deals because every team will know that you have no alternative.
real madrid have sold players like varane and it is very complicated for them to sign anybody (and they have been saving for a long time)
atletico only signed depaul because they had 180M capital increase, because otherwise they coudnt meet FFP either, and they didnt do any crazy thing
sevilla is forced to sell bryan gil (probably their best youngster) and they want to sell kounde (arguably their best player) to comply with FFP this season.

laliga spending is faaaaaaar below any other league, not because they overspent, but because laliga FFP that didnt take covid into account for anything.

barça management has been horrendous for years, it is not new and it is deserved to pay for it, but covid+laliga combined have been a bomb together
Barcelona are suffering now because of gross mismanagement of their finances, spending far too much money on transfers and wages. They could have addressed some of the issue by selling Messi for £100m last summer and losing another £100m in wages. Instead they kept him and didn’t even win a trophy last season. Barcelona fans cannot blame La Liga for the gross mismanagement of the club, that has led to this situation.
 

RDCR07

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I have no doubt he was attached to barcelona. I also have no doubt one of his advisors told him to cry a bit extra in order to make him look better
He is a human being and has emotions. He isn’t a fecking robot. Geez some people on here are ridiculous.
 

Josep Dowling

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I see in the Athletic that Umtiti, Braithwaite and Pjanic were jeered every time they touched the ball at a recent open training session. I wonder are they despicable people as well?

Does anybody know the actual numbers involved with Barca's financial predicament? I see that wages were 110% of revenue with Messi, and are 95% without him, but what does that mean in real terms? How much more do they need to clear off the wage bill (or generate in transfer fees) to get under the La Liga 70% threshhold?

How far would a 50m bid for De Jong and the freeing up of his wages go to that end?
Why would any club help Barcelona right now? All clubs are waiting in the hope they need to (desperately) sell to balance their books, then the top clubs will pounce on their top players.
 

Iker Quesadillas

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There wage bill is currently €700m according to Laporte. It was €807m with Messi.
Knowing what we know now, I'd say the figures reported in 2019 and 2020 were far below what was actually happening.
I find this very hard to believe.

I imagine the numbers from this audit will be officially released at some point.
 

Josep Dowling

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Poll Question:

Was gonna make a thread but maybe should just ask here.

Does the current financial plight of Real and Barca in some ways vindicate the spending policies of Man Utd, Glazers and Woodwood as a non oil club, or do you feel we should have swung for the fences every season and spent 200m each year since Fergie retired?
United have spent a lot of money. We are in the top five for gross and net transfer spending since Fergie retired and under José had one of the highest wages bills in world football. The big issue we have had is the lack of direction, allowing past it managers with differing styles to dictate signings. Had the Glazers taken more control and moved Woodward away from football based decisions maybe we wouldn’t be in such a mess. It’s not the lack of spending, it’s how we have wasted our resources that gripes me.
 

MadMike

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Chuck 50 mill at em for Pedri.
What would that do for Barca? Their problem is with wages, not money in general. Pedri is still on the initial contract from his transfer from Las Palmas to Barca and is earning only €2m per year (less than 40k pw). That will make feck all difference for Barca.

Also, bring him to play him where? He’s an AM/10 and we already have Bruno and Pogba for his position.