maybe if their TV rights over the last 30 years has been shared more equally, they would have a more competitive league.
Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
That being said, they're not wrong. Take Messi away and La Liga does lose a lot of appeal. The appeal of La Liga over the last decade was the Messi-Ronaldo battle, and subsequently there would have been more interest in the league overall as a result. I can definitely see a drop off in popularity when Messi does eventually leave/retire.
Well yes. That as well. They let that happen. If all they have to offer now is Messi they are in big trouble. What happens when he goes. They might not get the pick of the best like they have in the past.
Ok I’m calling bullshit on that one. You’re really telling me that these Covid-hit clubs, who’ve been trampled over financially by the big boys for years, are suddenly gonna pay Messi’s wages. So he can continue banging goals past them. Bullshit. The feckers gonna retire in a few years anyway!
Christ, he's going to retire sometime. Let him leave now for fecks sake. Or do they expect him to keep playing for the rest of time?
Just sell Messi and build around Fati and Pedri. Sure u lose some money but resigning Messi would probably take away all the money that is gained + huge Player exodus.
Any competent Owner or President would have got rid
Any competent Owner or President would have got rid
First he bankrupts his club, then bankrupts the league. St Messi
Next season - Messi scored the winner against a club that is subsiding his wages
Messi really is bigger than Barcelona.
I find this very unlikely.
The actual "elite" clubs can't do this because of fan outcry (Real Madrid, Atletico) and the rest of the clubs in La Liga can't even begin to afford it.
Last edited:
Why is Messi holding Barca hostage like this?
'This is not what we associate Barcelona with'. Someone has clearly not been paying attention and drinking the Barca kool aid.
One of the most disgraceful quotes from a coach I have ever seen.
Imagine bailing out a team so that they can keep a player that is already 34. Won't he retire?
This thread is a bit bizarre. Now Messi is suddenly forcing his team mates to accept pay cuts in order to earn a monster salary. As if the other Barcelona players aren't overpaid, too. De Jong is apparently earning more than Lewandowski - if people think Messi is earning too much, then surely the remaining Barca players do, too. And if they blame Messi for negotiating such contracts, it's a bit ironic they now pity players who are rinsing the club to at least the same extent relative to what they bring to the table. The only source I could find speaks of a new annual salary of around €50m for Messi - that would be a pay cut in the regions of 60%. I doubt that the other players will have their salary reduced in a comparable relation. So much for "other players have to take pay cuts to pay Messi".
Moreover, it appears that even rival clubs are inclined to keep Messi in the league. I wonder if anybody in here has entertained the thought that all these boards of professional football clubs aren't driven by collective madness but might actually have reasons for their decision to prioritize keeping Messi in the league?
Moreover, it appears that even rival clubs are inclined to keep Messi in the league. I wonder if anybody in here has entertained the thought that all these boards of professional football clubs aren't driven by collective madness but might actually have reasons for their decision to prioritize keeping Messi in the league?
We should buy De Jong and try for Pedri, though i reckon he would want back once barca is back on track.
I dont think too many will agree to a significant loss of earning.. there will be a lot of agreements where players might lower wages and get it back in some form at a later date..
That said.. shaving off the wage bill by 200m would be insane.. how the feck can any club do that? that's basically laying off 20 players on 200k/week
That said.. shaving off the wage bill by 200m would be insane.. how the feck can any club do that? that's basically laying off 20 players on 200k/week
I think people forget that for executives finance side is more important than the sporting side - be it any club in England, Italy or Spain.This thread is a bit bizarre. Now Messi is suddenly forcing his team mates to accept pay cuts in order to earn a monster salary. As if the other Barcelona players aren't overpaid, too. De Jong is apparently earning more than Lewandowski - if people think Messi is earning too much, then surely the remaining Barca players do, too. And if they blame Messi for negotiating such contracts, it's a bit ironic they now pity players who are rinsing the club to at least the same extent relative to what they bring to the table. The only source I could find speaks of a new annual salary of around €50m for Messi - that would be a pay cut in the regions of 60%. I doubt that the other players will have their salary reduced in a comparable relation. So much for "other players have to take pay cuts to pay Messi".
Moreover, it appears that even rival clubs are inclined to keep Messi in the league. I wonder if anybody in here has entertained the thought that all these boards of professional football clubs aren't driven by collective madness but might actually have reasons for their decision to prioritize keeping Messi in the league?
La Liga has the 2nd biggest TV sponsorship deal, I believe. This despite their production quality being worse than Germany and England, some game times being worse for Asian and American population compared to BuLi and players in the league being at the same level as Germany, England or maybe even Italy.
The reason for this high TV sponsorship deal and other sponsorship deals has been Madrid and Barca, (formerly) Ronaldo and Messi. Take both of them out of the equation and the TV sponsorship deals would be much worse. The viewing numbers will go down across the league, in turn bringing down club's sponsorship deals to a certain extent as well. No non-Barca supporter watches Levante vs Barcelona because of Frenkie or Griezmann. They do because of one man - and its easy to grasp why clubs want Messi to stay (unless RM go into another Galactico buying spree)
I refuse to believe that this is anything other than made up BS
“Good for the league” or not - there’s no logical reason for other clubs to bail out Barcelona from this mess.
Yeah I'm calling bullshit too. Not a single team outside of Barcelona give a shit about them re-signing Messi or not
How can other clubs help them? It’s not that they can’t afford Messi (I mean they can’t but they keep taking out huge loans to cover it) - it’s that to abide by La Liga rules they need to clear 200m off their wage bill. Unless some La Liga clubs fancy taking Griezman, Dembele and Coutinho on loan and pay all their wages they can’t do shit.
Barcelona on the brink...
The brink of having the rules bent so they can carry on as normal
They have some seriously talented young players though
Fati, pedri, Moriba, de Jong
Logically they should be prioritising keeping those and building round them rather than looking to keep messi
The brink of having the rules bent so they can carry on as normal
They have some seriously talented young players though
Fati, pedri, Moriba, de Jong
Logically they should be prioritising keeping those and building round them rather than looking to keep messi
Lmfao embarrassing how la liga itself is on its knees for Messi
I think help them in terms of agreeing that Batca can bend the rules this season.
What team are going to pay Messi more than Barcelona do? The la liga president already said that no team in the world in the present climate can afford to pay the salary Messi was earning.
Messi's punishment is that his greed will ensure some fallow years for Barcelona at the end of his career.
Truly disgraceful quotes.
I've seen those arguments being throwed around a lot, more than in previous years, but both of those arguments lack context.
About the TV rights sharing, as it's been said a lot of times, the first ones that didn't want that were medium sized teams, when TV rights became huge in the 90's, Real Madrid and Barcelona were ok with all the teams sharing a collective agreement to negotiate, teams like Deportivo, Sevilla, Betis or Valencia said no
- First because in a war for the media rights, some channels used them to haggle the price with Madrid and Barcelona, they found that they could save money by investing part of what they could offer to Real and Barça to the rest of teams on the league, in the end if you have the rights of 18 teams, you're going to have a Real Madrid or Barcelona game per week secured. That money blinded the usual 90's Spanish president with a little more money on the short run and a lot less money on the long run.
- Second, the money those teams got for the medium and short term got to their heads, they invested all of it hoping to dethrone the big 2, thinking that there was a lot more on their way in next years, it wasn't that way.
- Third, they used their position of power to screw teams out of the equation, Extremadura, Oviedo, Racing de Santander, Salamanca, Mérida... all those teams that were basically fodder to fight on relegation those years got less money than they deserved because the midsize kingpings didn't want their position threatened by clubs from below.
And about how La Liga has failed to market themselves... they've done a decent job, but there's a big elephant in the romm, this league doesn't have the tools to fight on the same ground with the EPL, Bundesliga or even Serie A or Ligue 1 if things keep changing.
In the EPL scenario, for starters the EPL has a bigger reach just on language alone, with native language viewers all over the world and, most importantly, with the biggest media in the world and a lot of GDP countries on that list (US and Australia are good examples).
If you compare their national market, it's 47M in Spain, 67M in the UK, 67M in France, 60M in Italy and 83M in Germany, that alone speaks about how hard it should be for La Liga to aim for the 1st spot in the world when it coexists in the same continent with bigger, richer countries that also have Football as their 1st sport priority.
Regarding the game times there's also another factor, Spain is in a different latitude to most of those leagues, and it's in a wrong timezone, something that has shaped the culture and customs of the Spanish people in many things, from eating and sleeping habits, to leisure time and ultimately, football. Going to a game at 13:00 it's not the same same for a German or a English than for a Spaniard, in order to better export our product to better time gaps, we have to take away the game as it's known from its society, and then there's the latitude problem, playing it's not the same in Gelsenkirchen or Brighton from February onwards, than doing so to Sevilla, Valencia or Granada. You can't even compare Napoli to Sevilla since "at the same time" there's almost one and a houlf hour difference between cities, even if their clocks don't reflect it.
Spanish is also an international language, but the power of it's media doesn't rival the power of the internation UK/US channels, and even in countries that could've been a gold mine for La Liga (let's say Mexico or Argentina), the local leagues have more impact than La Liga, that's not the situation with EPL vs MLS or the A-League.
And lastly, the population density of each country has a drastic effect on the overall level of the leagues.
Part of why the EPL is the king right now is because you have better games on a daily basis, not just due to the general level of the teams (deciding if West Ham is a better team than Levante is for another topic), the country has more people, and that people spreads more around a bunch of teams and has better connections between games than someone from Vigo who wants to watch any away game in La Liga (closest travels, Madrid and Bilbao) and things get even worse when Mallorca, Las Palmas or Tenerife have a spot in 1st division. This has a huge impact in the perception of the overall level of the league, specially in social media era, because who cares if Granada, Levante or Real Sociedad are having a great season in La Liga, if virtually no one is talking about it on forums, reddit or youtube? Spain is, again, at a disadvantage here, since everything steers around Barcelona and Madrid with no sign of it changing.
Maybe the situation could change if a new team manages to find success in Barcelona and rival the local team (hard to do, if you account what FC Barcelona represents to that area), or if Valencia manage to free themselve from corrupt boards. Even Bilbao's signing politics, something to be proud of, ends up hampering the overall level of La Liga, since it's basically blocking the 3rd biggest region of the country from bringing a juggernaut club capable of rival Real Madrid and Barcelona (like they used to do in the pre-bosman era).
If we're being realistic, we have two options, we either have a fair competition within our national market at the cost of losing power on the European side, or we adapt to our situation and put all our efforts in powering the only teams that can go toe to toe with other European powerhouses. As nice as it would be, I can't see a future in which Barcelona and Real Madrid lose their advantages over Valencia, Sevilla, Betis or Real Sociedad and remain as competitive in the UCL as they've been for the past 30 years.
Stockholm Syndrome in action.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Lmfao forget bigger than the club Messi is bigger than la liga
Pathetic if true.
If you're a fan of the NBA you'll understand the notion of Messi being this valuable to La Liga is not that far fetched. The dropoff post Bulls MJ has been well documented.
Bit weird that actual opposing clubs are getting involved in this... Should be the purview of La Liga and Barcelona.
Bit weird that actual opposing clubs are getting involved in this... Should be the purview of La Liga and Barcelona.
They are trying to save a club that tried to feck them a couple of months ago by joining the Super league ? How fecking stupid are they ?
Sounds like bs
Sounds like bs
I bet Messi (and ronaldo) raised the shit out of viewing figures of la liga to record levels that took a hit when Ronaldo left. Now all they got is Messi.
Barca and Madrid are like 95 percent of la liga
Barcelona have become an embarrassment to the football world. Their spending is completely out of control and even the super league wouldn't have saved them.
I hope their creditors teach them a good lesson in court for their transfer and wages inflation they have been doing over the last 10 years.
It'll show them that they are not the best club they think they are, they've lost the historical spirit of the club by being desperate to keep Messi and buy any half decent player on their radar.
O.f.c they will be fine tbh, they'll just get stadium naming rights and paying everyone off bit by bit.
It'll show them that they are not the best club they think they are, they've lost the historical spirit of the club by being desperate to keep Messi and buy any half decent player on their radar.
O.f.c they will be fine tbh, they'll just get stadium naming rights and paying everyone off bit by bit.