How do Barcelona afford their massive wages?

GuybrushThreepwood

Full Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2019
Messages
1,159
Supports
Blackburn Rovers
They are in debt, quite a bit, and have taken out huge loans to paper over the cracks. But they generate enormous revenue.
Agreed. Even during the middle of the Guardiola era, in the summer of 2010 they took out a large bank loan to pay their players’ and staff members’ wages. They’ve done it a few times this decade.

When they won the treble in 2014-2015, they were nervous about the additional bonuses that they would have to pay out.

For one of the biggest clubs and most in the world and most successful in recent times who generate huge revenues, their finances and the way they’ve been handled have been pretty disgraceful.
 

amolbhatia50k

Sneaky bum time - Vaccination status: dozed off
Joined
Nov 8, 2002
Messages
95,336
Location
india
They seem to have become a pretty mismanaged football club. Throwing money at players they don't need or arent the right fit.

I mean, why on earth do they need Griezmann? They saw the CL semi and that's what they felt was lacking? They need pace and legs in that team to make use of Messi's playmaking genius.
 

SCJY

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
333
I think Barcelona, considering their current debt levels and wage structure, are indeed a club in major crisis... Their midfield is extremely poor and really, how many years does Messi have left at the top? He's is pretty irreplaceable, and in the near future, they're gonna have to overhaul their team too.

Coutinho and Griezmann are probably joining the club simply as backup for Messi, to provide competition for that position, and to keep Messi driven to the max. It's a good strategy in fairness.
 

SER19

Full Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2008
Messages
12,478
It will be their third 100m+ transfer in 3 years - Dembele, Coutinho and Griezmann

Remember when Woodward said "we can do things in the transfer market other clubs can only dream of"? Still waiting...
What an unimpressive trio though. Evidence of why mental spending on single players isn't the best way to go for me. Not that idiot Woodward has a clue about the best way to do anything
 

B20

HEY EVERYONE I IGNORE SOMEONE LOOK AT ME
Joined
Aug 23, 2003
Messages
27,547
Location
Disney Land
Supports
Liverpool
It is names like

Malcom €41m
Paulinho €40m
Gomes €37m

that is the more shocking part.
 

SirAF

Ageist
Joined
Sep 28, 2003
Messages
37,563
Location
They're a football club, what else are they supposed to be spending money on? Dividends and interest payments?
Yes, but their wage ratio to revenue is not sustainable long term. Unless they do something it’s all going to explode down the line.
 

Vault Dweller

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
6,553
Location
Vault 88, The Commonwealth
Yes, but their wage ratio to revenue is not sustainable long term. Unless they do something it’s all going to explode down the line.
Definitely, especially with the most recent rumors. How on Earth can they afford de Jong, de Ligt and Antione to their already mentally expensive squad? And cover the rebuild of the stadium? Even selling Dembele and Countinho I fail to see how that is sustainable.
 
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Messages
19,776

There's doing things in the transfer market and there's utter stupidity... I wonder if you'd be happy if we'd spent 150 million on Coutinho. Sanchez is bad enough.
True but we should be showing ambition. Not giving Jones, Smalling and Young new contracts and signing over the hill players that are declining.
 

Casanova85

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2018
Messages
4,183
Location
Northwestern Mediterranean
Supports
Cruyff/SAF
Ah, if they fail, fools who bankrupted themselves.

If they can spend this much and succeed, corrupt bastards.

Some clubs will never face bankrupcy: Madrid, Barça, Bayern, etc.
 

Bole Top

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2014
Messages
3,508
either some of you are joking or you actually believe they'll have Malcolm, Dembele, Cou, Griezmann, Messi and every other current player playing in the same team while also buying De Ligt. they will get rid of some of their bad transfers, some deadwood and even some good players (likely Rakitic). unlike us, they actually have few players that are wanted by other clubs, it's not like they're just going to spend all the time.
 

Casanova85

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2018
Messages
4,183
Location
Northwestern Mediterranean
Supports
Cruyff/SAF
either some of you are joking or you actually believe they'll have Malcolm, Dembele, Cou, Griezmann, Messi and every other current player playing in the same team while also buying De Ligt. they will get rid of some of their bad transfers, some deadwood and even some good players (likely Rakitic). unlike us, they actually have few players that are wanted by other clubs, it's not like they're just going to spend all the time.
Exactly.

Also, Barça has been "in debt" since 2003.
 

KirkDuyt

Full Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Messages
24,444
Location
Dutchland
Supports
Feyenoord
Best thread title in a long time. Really captures the gist of the thread in an eloquent yet succinct way.

They will probably sell some guys in the summer to make room in their budget? Think it's safe to say the patronizing "look at us developing our youth etc" is a thing of the past for 'em though.
 

giorno

boob novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
26,144
Supports
Real Madrid
Kind of wish the rest of europe got together and agreed not to sign players from them this year. Let them fall in the red and sweat for a year, see if next year they'll be forced into a fire sale
 

Casanova85

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2018
Messages
4,183
Location
Northwestern Mediterranean
Supports
Cruyff/SAF
Best thread title in a long time. Really captures the gist of the thread in an eloquent yet succinct way.

They will probably sell some guys in the summer to make room in their budget? Think it's safe to say the patronizing "look at us developing our youth etc" is a thing of the past for 'em though.
The Masia will be fine. "Problem" is: the previous generation (Xavi-Puyol-Valdés-Iniesta-Piqué-Buscuits-Pedro) has set the bar SO HIGH that new "good, not great" youth players are not going to make it in modern Barça.
 

Casanova85

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2018
Messages
4,183
Location
Northwestern Mediterranean
Supports
Cruyff/SAF
Kind of wish the rest of europe got together and agreed not to sign players from them this year. Let them fall in the red and sweat for a year, see if next year they'll be forced into a fire sale
Your vitriolic, flipant anti-Barça threads are hilarious and entertaining, and I mean it. Keep 'em coming.
 

Hammondo

Full Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2015
Messages
6,664
It will be their third 100m+ transfer in 3 years - Dembele, Coutinho and Griezmann

Remember when Woodward said "we can do things in the transfer market other clubs can only dream of"? Still waiting...
Has not worked for them.
 

MVBDX

Full Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
782
Supports
Real Madrid
Meanwhile Madrid's net spend in the last 5 years has been Spurs-tier.
 

A-boateng

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
48
This is why I don't get the special Barcelona fan love. They're no different than the likes of Madrid, PSG in terms of buying success nowadays. Messi aside they have been splashing cash. Even Messi is on a really high wage. Barca fit the "big money. big wins" model just as anyone else.
Why shouldn’t Messi be one really high wage? He is one of the best footballers of all time and has been key to Barca winning so many trophies since he broke to their first team. Plus he must make them tons of money through shirt sales etc...

How much is Neymar getting paid at PSG, Ronaldo at Juventus? Rumours are Aaron Ramsey is on something like 400k with Juventus so thats how it is in football.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

WolfInSharp'sClothing

Full Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2018
Messages
565
Supports
Wolves
They have turnover of around £560m and a wage bill of around £420m.

They are owned by their members, so have no shareholders to satisfy and no debts to manage.

£100m + spending of surplus turnover after other running costs and player sales is easily sustainable.
 

RE1999

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Sep 4, 2018
Messages
58
They might be buying players as they know Messi is off to City for 300m euros....
 

Sanche7

Full Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2018
Messages
2,796
Meanwhile Madrid's net spend in the last 5 years has been Spurs-tier.
Real Madrid fans of all people bragging about net spend :lol:
Just wait till the summer is over, a 500 million summer will makes things again
 

MVBDX

Full Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
782
Supports
Real Madrid
Real Madrid fans of all people bragging about net spend :lol:
Just wait till the summer is over, a 500 million summer will makes things again
It's true though, I recall seeing a list of top spending clubs of the past couple of years, and we weren't in like top 50, maybe top 100? While we've got record revenues year in year out.

We've got to spend like 1 billion to get back on the list.
 

Cait Sith

Full Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2014
Messages
1,379
This thread wouldn't exist if you simply googled Barca's transfers. They have a net spend of 200 million Euros in the past 3 seasons (this season with De Jong so far included), which is normal for a club with their revenues.

Yeah, they bought Coutinho, Dembélé etc. but they have also sold players like Paco (20M), Yerry Mina (30M), Digne (20M), Deulofeu (13M), Paulinho (40M), Claudio Bravo (20M) and obviously Neymar for 222M.

They are averaging less than 70M per season. You think they are going bankrupt from that while making the same revenue as Manchester United but without shareholder interests?
 

Ishdalar

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2013
Messages
3,351
Location
Spain
Supports
Barcelona
Kind of wish the rest of europe got together and agreed not to sign players from them this year. Let them fall in the red and sweat for a year, see if next year they'll be forced into a fire sale
They could also choose to not buy anyone from Real Madrid so they don't have wage room for galactico signings, or even don't sell to them or us either.

Just by doing that and Atletico imploding, they could destroy La Liga in two transfer windows :rolleyes:
 

KirkDuyt

Full Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Messages
24,444
Location
Dutchland
Supports
Feyenoord
Madrid and Barcelona fans telling eachother they spend too much is hilarious.

You both spend a lot silly geese.
 

JohnnyKills

Full Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2016
Messages
7,098
Was thinking this. They're already in the shits with the salaries they're paying Messi, Suarez etc. How are they going to afford all this?

Guess their plan is to buy as many good players as they can now, while Messi's still there. It's a good strategy - we should have done the same during Fergie's final years in charge - but something doesn't add up with their financing.
 

Ishdalar

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2013
Messages
3,351
Location
Spain
Supports
Barcelona
This thread wouldn't exist if you simply googled Barca's transfers. They have a net spend of 200 million Euros in the past 3 seasons (this season with De Jong so far included), which is normal for a club with their revenues.

Yeah, they bought Coutinho, Dembélé etc. but they have also sold players like Paco (20M), Yerry Mina (30M), Digne (20M), Deulofeu (13M), Paulinho (40M), Claudio Bravo (20M) and obviously Neymar for 222M.

They are averaging less than 70M per season. You think they are going bankrupt from that while making the same revenue as Manchester United but without shareholder interests?
A little more than that all things considered, I'll explain.

From what I've read through years, the thing about our wage structure is that it resorts to the "signing/loyalty bonus" formula to keep everything in check, and these bonuses (like the ones Neymar was supposed to get, and others like Leo, Busquets, Pique or Mascherano have collected in the past) aren't "included" in the wage bill, but the transfer budget instead.

What does that mean?

in 18/19 our net spending in transfers was +4M
17/18 -130M
16/17 -80M
15/16 --10M
14/15 -80M
13/14 -65M
12/13 -29M
11/12 -12M

That amounts to 50M/year spent on transfers in the last 8 seasons, I think it's fair to assume (from my memory) that would look like a small sum for the earnings a MU/Real/Barça team has, a lot of the budget reserved to transfers ends up going to sign/loyalty bonus, that's why our youth system is supposed to be so important (and hasn't been lately, that's another topic) and why some years when we spend 40M some journalists will say that we're "dried out of funds" and other years we can go for world record fees.

It's about lining up huge transfer windows and bonus payments in alternative years so the balance keeps in check, when those two things can't happen at the same time (like De Jong and De Ligt being available when maybe you'll have to pay some bonus) you need to resort to external financiation and take a little loss with the interest.



This is just my personal opinion and the version of the facts I think makes more sense, by no means do I actually believe this to be 100% truth. Maybe we do end up in bankruptcy in 10 years, only the board members truly know that.
 

JohnnyKills

Full Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2016
Messages
7,098
Maybe Griezmann is one of those players they think will pay for himself in shirt sales and commercial deals.

Does feel Barca lack a bit of nous in the commercial/financial department though. We all criticize the Glazers, and rightly so, but we don't have to worry about paying for any of our signings.

It seems that Barca have really fallen behind on the business side. The decision to forego a commercial sponsor for Unicef looks a bad one in hindsight, and they don't seem to be making as much of their brand as they could. I live in Barcelona myself and the club clearly does a roaring trade on matchday, but they haven't nailed their wider marketing strategy like United have.

When Messi leaves I can see them going through a really tough period. They've made some really average signings over the last few years and there's a real drop-off in their squad. Even if they sign De Ligt and Griezmann to go with De Jong, they'll still have loads of holes to fill in the squad. Busquets, Alba, Pique, Suarez, Vidal and Rakitic are all the wrong side of 30 and that's the core of their team.
 

Harry190

Bobby ten Hag
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
7,603
Location
Canada
They are crazy. But I don't think they really care about how much they're spending. They do it for their football, not just the brand and money.
 

Giggsyking

Full Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
8,265
Barcelona has the highest wage bills in the world and their wage ratio to revenue is 80% I think, our is like almost 50%.

They already spent 75m euro on De Jong who will be earning net 10m euro with 6m bonus annually next season. They want to add Greziammn for 120m euro, I have no idea how much Barcelona is willing to pay him a salary but apparently, Griezmann is 400K euro net per week playing for Atletico Madrid. They also want to get De Ligt for 60-80m, that's crazy.

I have no idea how much they can afford it but it felt like Barcelona is willing to spend more money than they can afford and bankrupting themselves trying to get the best player in each position. It doesn't stop them from spending 100m on one player even if their wage ratio is too high. Are they desperate for another UCL trophy or what?

I admire their ambition, I wish our board would have the same ambition as them the exception of wage ratio.
Its a state club, just like Madrid. They get money under the table. So yeah, they dont care.
 

shamans

Thinks you can get an STD from flirting.
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
18,226
Location
Constantly at the STD clinic.
Why shouldn’t Messi be one really high wage? He is one of the best footballers of all time and has been key to Barca winning so many trophies since he broke to their first team. Plus he must make them tons of money through shirt sales etc...

How much is Neymar getting paid at PSG, Ronaldo at Juventus? Rumours are Aaron Ramsey is on something like 400k with Juventus so thats how it is in football.
My point is Messi is at Barca due to an extremely high wage and support group. Theres no magic about Barca that Messi stays there. At the end of the day it's all about money but fans are quick to bash others players who chase a big salary or teams that pay a big one
 

giorno

boob novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
26,144
Supports
Real Madrid
It's true though, I recall seeing a list of top spending clubs of the past couple of years, and we weren't in like top 50, maybe top 100? While we've got record revenues year in year out.

We've got to spend like 1 billion to get back on the list.
Nope. We spent a lot of money on the players we already had. After the double pretty much everyone got big fat new contracts

Plus, big fat prize money on top
 

SharpshooterTom

New Member
Joined
May 25, 2018
Messages
684
This is the reason why I don't get the comments about when Messi retires Barca will decline for good as a club (usually made by Messi fanboys).

It's quite clear they'll always be one of the top 5 biggest clubs in Europe post-Messi, Barca won 6 league titles in the 90s and two CL's before Messi became the main star in the Barca side. Their spending power will be enormous post-Messi and they'll continue to win plenty of CL's and La Liga's for many many years to come.
 

Peyroteo

Professional Ronaldo PR Guy
Joined
Jan 11, 2016
Messages
10,884
Location
Porto, Portugal
Supports
Sporting CP
Nope. We spent a lot of money on the players we already had. After the double pretty much everyone got big fat new contracts

Plus, big fat prize money on top
And even with the big fat contracts your wage bill doesn't come close to Barcelona's... :lol:

The prize money you give to the players is offset by the prize money the club got from winning 4 CL titles in 5 years.

The difference in investment between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the past 5 years is ridiculous and there's no justification for it.
 

Red_toad

Full Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
11,587
Location
DownUnder
If we sell them the Glazer clan, then they'd no longer have such money available for wages. That good debt and dividends our clubs pays for would soon sort out all that cash they throw at their players.