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Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

roseguy64

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It's an odd signing as to my knowledge they haven't lost a defender (bar 38 year old Alves). They've lost out on Kounde, who is chelsea bound so they might feel they need to sign a new central defender. But this is despite signing Christensen and possibly Azpliefsefueta from Chelsea so the feck knows what they are doing.

Although I'd be surprised someone from Bilbao would go to Barca
Azpilicueta would be a RB to replace Alves.

I'm assuming they aren't fond of Garcia and Pique is almost done. So don't feel comfortable with just Araujo and Christensen.
 

MexicanCowboy

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You said we should be grateful that Pep came and thought as how to play football.
That sounded like Bayern were a nothing club before Pep, which is just ridiculous.

We have won more European cups than Barcelona and Pep didn't add any despite having a very strong team.
What I meant is the influence he had in your playstyle. You do play a brand of football very influenced by Guardiola. Kind of a mixture of what Guardiola plays with your old more direct and more physical German style.
In my opinion, Bayern has been the best team in Europe for the last 2 or 3 years while also been the best one to watch.
The Champions League is not always won by the team that deserves it. I remember 20 years ago when Madrid won their 8th that they were playing awfully and even finished 5th in La Liga. What those guys have with the Champions League is crazy.
 

Demas

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Laporta knows something that yall don't.
This is what I'm also thinking. Surely they've done the maths and decided that these are the best steps to take? Maybe these deals include some sort of break clauses that can be activated in the future? They must be cognizant of the fact that they're in this situation because of some bone-headed decisions the previous board took and are guided by that fact. Surely, right?
 

B. Munich

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What I meant is the influence he had in your playstyle. You do play a brand of football very influenced by Guardiola. Kind of a mixture of what Guardiola plays with your old more direct and more physical German style
Louis van Gaal did lay the foundation of Bayern's possession play style. Heynckes and Pep fine tuned it. That most attractive (and successful) football Bayern played in 2013 under Heynckes und 2020 under Flick.
 

Dave Smith

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200m Euro more every year only from the stadium?
Can you elaborate on these figures?
Apprantly they have a 'Danny' who really loves Lazer Tag and he is going to bring in massive new revenue streams from the redeveloped stadium.

I don't know how they teach you math in Spain but in Germany and the rest of the world 25% of 5 billion make only 1,25 billion Euro. Thus it's not even enough to pay off your current debt.
Always thought that the Germans' where a little harsh to the Club Med countries during the banking crisis. However, I am now starting to understand what they may have been dealing with.
 

Bluelion7

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Barcelona got to about 1 billion income pre-covid mostly thanks to global relevance and bandwagon new fans who just follow the team because it wins. United can afford to spend 9 years without doing anything relevant and still have a great budget and be able to spend 200 million. Barcelona can't afford that. A few more years being shite and nobody but the very old fans will watch Barca.
Of course it's risky and it may lead to bankrupcy, but allowing the team to be crap will lead to bankrupcy as well.
But you have just highlighted the main mistake I have been talking about: Barcelona, and it’s fans, seem to think their popularity comes almost exclusively from winning.

Do you think, when the lawsuits start, and Barca becomes the face of the most despised thing in world football, the fact that they competed for the La Liga crown will matter to the “casual” fan?

With people all over the world struggling with inflation outpacing wages, the public face of your team sells “people should be happy to take less money to play for Barca”

along, of course, with the message of not following through with paying your promised back wages to players.

Barca reached “casual” fans and became a lot of peoples “second team”, in America at least, because we bought on to that whole “more than a club” thing. There was supposed to be this level of purity and integrity to Barca that the Galacticos of the world didn’t have.

Barca is burning through all that trying to keep a “casual” audience that already prefers Madrid.

Seriously now, the second team of foreigners who liked the front runner that won everything and spent the most money have Madrid jerseys in their closet,

So none of this makes sense to me really.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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Unless I’m missing something, why is it generally assumed here that Laporta is financially responsible? Wasn’t their finances also a bit shit after his first stint when he just doled out largesse for Ronaldinho and co. and everybody there loved it because of the party atmosphere within the club?
 

Iker Quesadillas

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Unless I’m missing something, why is it generally assumed here that Laporta is financially responsible? Wasn’t their finances also a bit shit after his first stint when he just doled out largesse for Ronaldinho and co. and everybody there loved it because of the party atmosphere within the club?
Not really. Finances were really bad when he took over and they improved while a new team was built. Ferran Soriano of Manchester City was in charge of that at the time.

That's both the benefit and drawback of voting him for president again: people are expecting everything.
 

Suv666

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How much money have they spent in the window till now?
It feels like Barca is just fecking about calling themselves broke so that they can get out of paying wages and got loads of cash hidden somewhere.
Or maybe a bailout by the Spanish government in the future.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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Not really. Finances were really bad when he took over and they improved while a new team was built. Ferran Soriano of Manchester City was in charge of that at the time.

That's both the benefit and drawback of voting him for president again: people are expecting everything.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/league-name/story/2037544/headline

Well that is what Rosell and Bartomeu claimed, and granted, they aren’t exactly bastions of moral and integrity, but you cant just dismiss everything based on their character either.
 

mikeyt

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How much money have they spent in the window till now?
It feels like Barca is just fecking about calling themselves broke so that they can get out of paying wages and got loads of cash hidden somewhere.
Or maybe a bailout by the Spanish government in the future.
It's utterly disgusting that the authorities haven't stepped in to force them to pay the wages players are owed before they're allowed to splash what is nearly £200million on new signings. The levers crap is clearly corruption too! I give up with the football authorities. That said surely those that are owed money could take Barca to court for loss of earnings.
 

Niemans

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It's utterly disgusting that the authorities haven't stepped in to force them to pay the wages players are owed before they're allowed to splash what is nearly £200million on new signings. The levers crap is clearly corruption too! I give up with the football authorities. That said surely those that are owed money could take Barca to court for loss of earnings.
Barcelona owe nothing to any player. And the club is already paying the deferred money when it is stipulated in the contract.
 

Hammondo

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It's utterly disgusting that the authorities haven't stepped in to force them to pay the wages players are owed before they're allowed to splash what is nearly £200million on new signings. The levers crap is clearly corruption too! I give up with the football authorities. That said surely those that are owed money could take Barca to court for loss of earnings.
It's not against the law.
 

Ragnar123

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If they don't get clubs to join, then it will be more of a mini tournament than a Super League.
No club officially left the super league so far because no one payed the fine for that. So no matter how much the PL clubs rant about the SL, legally speaking they are still a part of it. According to Perez of course.
 

DomesticTadpole

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No club officially left the super league so far because no one payed the fine for that. So no matter how much the PL clubs rant about the SL, legally speaking they are still a part of it. According to Perez of course.
The way the fans of PL teams reacted, not sure they will go through with it.
 

GinobiliTheGOAT

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Wow all the new signings looking fantastic so far. Just pre season against Madrid but really looking forward to the new season.
 

elmo

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Barcelona owe nothing to any player. And the club is already paying the deferred money when it is stipulated in the contract.
Except Barcelona is trying to bail on the deferred payment by getting rid of them before they have to pay up.

But I’m sure it’s the players fault that they agreed to the deferred payment. Barcelona can do no wrong.
 
Last edited:

elmo

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No club officially left the super league so far because no one payed the fine for that. So no matter how much the PL clubs rant about the SL, legally speaking they are still a part of it. According to Perez of course.
Perez is posturing because he knows the the SL is fecked without the English teams. The SL would be glorified friendlies between Barcelona, Real and Juventus without them.
 

ThierryHenry14

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Barcelona owe nothing to any player. And the club is already paying the deferred money when it is stipulated in the contract.
Except it becomes an issue when Barcelona is trying to sell players with those wage deferred contract.
 

Bestie07

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They have built a seriously good squad for the coming season with amazing depth. They should be right up there competing for major honors this season, although God knows what happens to them in mid to long term.
 

Pronewbie

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Laporta is probably inspired by the way Spain and other European countries have been managing their finances. Barca seems like a pretty good analogy these days. Enjoy while it lasts, I suppose.
 

GinobiliTheGOAT

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But you have just highlighted the main mistake I have been talking about: Barcelona, and it’s fans, seem to think their popularity comes almost exclusively from winning.

Do you think, when the lawsuits start, and Barca becomes the face of the most despised thing in world football, the fact that they competed for the La Liga crown will matter to the “casual” fan?

With people all over the world struggling with inflation outpacing wages, the public face of your team sells “people should be happy to take less money to play for Barca”

along, of course, with the message of not following through with paying your promised back wages to players.

Barca reached “casual” fans and became a lot of peoples “second team”, in America at least, because we bought on to that whole “more than a club” thing. There was supposed to be this level of purity and integrity to Barca that the Galacticos of the world didn’t have.

Barca is burning through all that trying to keep a “casual” audience that already prefers Madrid.

Seriously now, the second team of foreigners who liked the front runner that won everything and spent the most money have Madrid jerseys in their closet,

So none of this makes sense to me really.
This is incredibly misguided, Barca won a lot of casual fans over due to Messi. They’re still one of the biggest clubs in the world, top 3 at the absolute worst and clearly they still have massive pull judging by how many players seem to be joining them. Barca was doing very well in revenue pre Covid and now that Messi is gone they should still be able to make a lot of money provided they remain successful on the pitch. They certainly have the squad to do so and comfortably have had the best transfer window so far this year.
 

youmeletsfly

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They have built a seriously good squad for the coming season with amazing depth. They should be right up there competing for major honors this season, although God knows what happens to them in mid to long term.
They need to win everything for a few years for sponsors to jump on them. This way they'll increase revenue and can buy back some of the TV rights they've sold.
I'm 100% sure there are clauses in which they can buy back what they've sold, otherwise those deals are quite diabolical.
 

Bestie07

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They need to win everything for a few years for sponsors to jump on them. This way they'll increase revenue and can buy back some of the TV rights they've sold.
I'm 100% sure there are clauses in which they can buy back what they've sold, otherwise those deals are quite diabolical.
That, or Barcelona expect Super League to take off making the domestic TV rights worth a lot less than they are currently.
 

B. Munich

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Laporta is probably inspired by the way Spain and other European countries have been managing their finances. Barca seems like a pretty good analogy these days. Enjoy while it lasts, I suppose.
Who going to play the part of the ECB coming to rescue then eventually? The ESL?