He said Their
Lionel Messi’s Obscene Contract
- Thread starter Port Vale Devil
- Start date
easily
Given the incompetence of Bartomeu, I genuinely don’t think so. I think most Barca fans if they are being honest will concede that Bartomeu doesn’t work in as analytical and scientific a fashion as would be required to think like that.
Pele plays for Barca?
Never knew that. You learn something new every day on the Caf.
Apologies - couldn’t respond sooner as am restricted to the 5 post limit. If you can like some of my posts, we can engage more in debate on the obscenity of Messi’s contract.
On 1 - I just don’t believe you can seggregate what a player contributes to a teams revenue in that fashion.Besides, if a player just takes the amount he “accounts” for in wages, the club would go bankrupt because you have other expenses too.You would want the player to be raking roughly half of what they account for to be viable. Also - Man Utd and Real Madrid have comparable revenue to Barca but don’t have Messi. Barca are comparable in stature to the aforementioned clubs so I am not sure it’s fair to say if Barca can’t do the same revenue without Messi.
Just to preempt your reply - Offcourse Laporte and others will say Messi contributes so and so - it’s in their interest to be seen to placating Messi.
On 2 - your post proves the opposite. This leak hasn’t deterred fans so why should a leak at the last contract renewal have done so ? They would continue to blame the club.
He’s worth every penny. Actually a bargain when you think about what he’s done for that club.
Better than them.
Wrong.
never knew Pele played for them, and neither Cruyff nor Maradona are nowhere near Messi as the greatest Barcelona player.
Nope, its because of the players pure greed why they want to hide the money also publicizing the contract takes away leverage in driving up his future wage demands making him toxic when he negotiates with other clubs because they now they know what money he is on... most teams will never match that insane amount now its public knowledge so he is either forced to stay at barca or take a massive pay cut because his agent negotiating with a new club now cannot lie and say messi is 'only' on a poverty €1m euro a week in hopes to drive up contract.
I must admit its an ingenious move by barca to 'leak' the contract like this to the press and plausibly deny it .. Messis behavior has been disgraceful towards the team holding them up plus their declining on pitch performance , this retaliatory move by the club against him is a sneaky but effective tactic to try and force him to stay.
Says the guy who thinks Pele played for Barcelona
This is not true everywhere, and not for every job. You're coming from the perspective of British football where most clubs will be owned by private individuals, and it's up to them how they are run. Anyone can know what I earn if they dig in the law, because I work for the public sector.
Barcelona is owned by the fans with membership, who vote for management. I find it odd that clubs with membership-based ownership can keep details like this completely hidden. How are fans supposed to make their choices regarding the future of the club?
In the case of a club like Porto and most big Portuguese clubs, who are publicly traded companies, any major decision has to be reported to the stock exchange, for investors to know. This doesn't mean every small detail (like young players on cheap contracts) needs to be made public, but anything that might influence stock price must be disclosed. This includes most top player signings, how much they cost, length of contract, gross wages, etc.
I also find it dubious that only those few people at Barcelona know about the details of Messi's contract. Surely some tax workers must know too, don't companies need to report what they pay to workers to revenue services? So if it's a leak, possible sources are probably a bit more than those 5 names mentioned earlier.
He should never question how the club is run, ever.
No he’s not - nobody is, and Barca have underwhelmed since he signed that contract.
I dont see the fuss. Messi earned his dues. Not his fault barca haven't done a good job operating the rest of the business
Should double his wages and put Barca in administration.
Then we can sign De Jong and Fati.
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Arsenal fans gonna be raging in three years when they discover Aubamayang got 600.
He reportedly earn around 290k per week, so that’s about 16m per year. For comparison sake in 4 years we paid him around 64m. Adding to that transfer fee of 90m (to Juventus), that would be 154m. It still 146m short of your estimated figure of 300m, I am not sure if agent fee, signing on fee, bonus etc could make up that much.
Heard Raiola earn around 30m from Pogba transfer last time? Did we paid that 30m directly and separately to agent? Or did Juventus pay him from their 90m profit received instead?
We would hopefully also recover €50-60mm when he leaves
I don't know why people use the term hate when discussing a player whose got no links to us, our rivals or even the EPL. It does sound immature
Messi took care of himself which is fair enough. As said a player career is short and there are very few players around who would want to be fair towards the club that made them by not asking for a ridiculous pay. . My initial point was that its unfair to brand Messi with the same brush to the likes of Scholes and Totti who had placed their club ahead of financial gain. I think we can all agree with that and move on.
Its also wrong to say that Messi's salary didn't had an impact on Barcelona. First of all its difficult to quantify how much money Messi had produced on Barca's behalf. Sure he's a popular player and his departure would have had a financial hit. However its not as if Barcelona fans would stop following Barcelona because Messi left. United lost both Beckham and Ronaldo in their prime however our club's value kept rising, the club kept making good money out of merchandising & sponsorships and that despite replacing the best player in the world with a glorified catapult who could only cross the ball. Secondly players/seller clubs tend to compare their salary with the high earner. If Messi is on 2m a week then the likes of Griezmann would expect to be paid at least 800k. Atletico on the other hand would expect to be paid top money as Barcelona are thought to be loaded. Which is why responsible clubs tend to prefer balancing the books then appease a greedy player even if that player happen to be their best player.
Ultimately this mess is not Messi's fault. No one forced Barcelona to come up with that silly contract. In my opinion its yet another example of bad management.
Messi took care of himself which is fair enough. As said a player career is short and there are very few players around who would want to be fair towards the club that made them by not asking for a ridiculous pay. . My initial point was that its unfair to brand Messi with the same brush to the likes of Scholes and Totti who had placed their club ahead of financial gain. I think we can all agree with that and move on.
Its also wrong to say that Messi's salary didn't had an impact on Barcelona. First of all its difficult to quantify how much money Messi had produced on Barca's behalf. Sure he's a popular player and his departure would have had a financial hit. However its not as if Barcelona fans would stop following Barcelona because Messi left. United lost both Beckham and Ronaldo in their prime however our club's value kept rising, the club kept making good money out of merchandising & sponsorships and that despite replacing the best player in the world with a glorified catapult who could only cross the ball. Secondly players/seller clubs tend to compare their salary with the high earner. If Messi is on 2m a week then the likes of Griezmann would expect to be paid at least 800k. Atletico on the other hand would expect to be paid top money as Barcelona are thought to be loaded. Which is why responsible clubs tend to prefer balancing the books then appease a greedy player even if that player happen to be their best player.
Ultimately this mess is not Messi's fault. No one forced Barcelona to come up with that silly contract. In my opinion its yet another example of bad management.
Barcelona is a brand in itself messi or no messi.haha Barca have definitely been foolish in the transfer market but were #1 in football revenue for 2020. Obviously covid has changed a lot of things but Messi is the biggest reason those sponsorships and other deals have been lucrative as they are. Rakuten isn’t throwing gobs of money at Barca because of Coutinho
Real Madrid or Manchester United didn't start getting no sponsors when Ronaldo left.
And don't think Juventus are getting equal sponsors even with Ronaldo.
Also Messi required the Barcelona brand as well which has made his brand stronger.
You need to take a long hard look at yourself boy.
Of course he deserves every bit of the money he earns. Barcelona owe him huge for what he has achieved for the club on the pitch, off field revenue and establishing their image and reputation as a club.
This is a club which had won 1 European cup in their history. He won them 3 and had some part to play in a 4th. That's the same as United's entire European legacy and largely down to one player. No matter how good Xavi and Iniesta were they wouldn't have been nearly as successful as a team without this guy. These achievements are difficult to appreciate owing to them being recent events. If Barcelona don't win another CL for the next 10 years(which is entirely plausible) maybe people will begin to comprehend the magnitude of Messi's contributions.
Whatever he earns is already justified by his footballing achievements. But on top of that he helps the club earn shitloads of money off of his name. There are intangible factors like how much he helped boost Barcelona's youth academy credentials, how important he was to the evolution of a style of football that has seen the the game change during his career. And he will continue to make the club money after he's gone, he will continue to inspire millions of kids who have watched him play. There will be generations of kids who will idolise him and want to play for Barcelona. It's impossible to put a price on the impact he has had on football and on that club. The closest analogy someone has come up with so far is SAF with United. But Messi has clearly been more influential to his club, won more during his time and his long term impact will definitely be more significant.
This is a club which had won 1 European cup in their history. He won them 3 and had some part to play in a 4th. That's the same as United's entire European legacy and largely down to one player. No matter how good Xavi and Iniesta were they wouldn't have been nearly as successful as a team without this guy. These achievements are difficult to appreciate owing to them being recent events. If Barcelona don't win another CL for the next 10 years(which is entirely plausible) maybe people will begin to comprehend the magnitude of Messi's contributions.
Whatever he earns is already justified by his footballing achievements. But on top of that he helps the club earn shitloads of money off of his name. There are intangible factors like how much he helped boost Barcelona's youth academy credentials, how important he was to the evolution of a style of football that has seen the the game change during his career. And he will continue to make the club money after he's gone, he will continue to inspire millions of kids who have watched him play. There will be generations of kids who will idolise him and want to play for Barcelona. It's impossible to put a price on the impact he has had on football and on that club. The closest analogy someone has come up with so far is SAF with United. But Messi has clearly been more influential to his club, won more during his time and his long term impact will definitely be more significant.
Fergie was the reason we became a top club again. Why didn't we give him half our revenues? A "study" saying this or that in a fluffy piece isn't worth the paper it is written on.
Dedicating a third of your wage budget to a single player is just bad business no matter how I look at it.
Dedicating a third of your wage budget to a single player is just bad business no matter how I look at it.
dumb take, the athletic isn’t a fluff piece and if you actually read it you would know it. Just a brutal take all around
The problem is fans are all supportive of these contracts at the start, untill the turn sour. Look at us with the Sanchez contract, or arsenal with Ozil ( and soon to be Aubameyang).
I just cant aee how ita true, sounds like creative accounting to me.
Madrids commercial income increased after Ronaldo left, Uniteds did as well.
If Messi did bring a third, then its already there. They dont have to keep Messi for 2m a week to maintain it
I don't know about "half our revenues", but we paid Ferguson very well. More than any player at one point...
"Sir Alex Ferguson signed a contract with Manchester United in 2010 that ensured he would receive a higher salary than any of his players, the former manager has revealed in his latest book."
He'd just won twelve leagues by that point, two UCL, multiple FA Cups, and League cups and changed the team from the biggest in England to one of the biggest in the world. Two effing right.
I think this is PR from Barca that he brings in more than he costs. You made less actual profit from what he makes you (by paying him a higher percentage of that profit, eating into the margin) than if you paid him €300m over four years.
They gave that money to a player, on the decline because....he is good for your brand? You're a football club firstly, the money could have been spent on better players to keep you winning trophies or revamping La Masia, or driving down debt. You've also pumped huge money into a declining, depreciating asset.
Besides, if the entire team's identity and brand are based on one player then they are likely to implode when he retires/leaves.
Absolutely it's PR. Neither party looks good here. Messi looks a cnut because, let's face it, you don't get that kind of money without bending the club over and forcing them into it, and Barcelona look completely incompetent for bowing down to it.
People are acting as if Barcelona were single-handedly dragged up from the lower leagues by Messi to the pinnacle of football. They were one of the best teams in the world or thereabouts before Messi even step foot into the team, and when he did so he was surrounded by some of the best players of the last 20 or 30 years. Has Messi been good for brand Barcelona? Of course he has, but no where near enough to justify risking bankruptcy and ****ing yourselves over in the long term. As I said, it's incompetency from the board that's led them here.
one of the greatest shame in the history of sport
They manage the club like a business, first and foremost trying to get a return on their investments. If the study they conducted suggests Messi generates more than they pay them, it makes sense that they were so eager to keep him.
Apparently, Rakuten plans on cutting the sponsoring deal for next year by 40% if Messi isn't at Barcelona anymore. Another sponsor, Beko, seems to want to cut it even further to 50%.
We're living in a globalized world and much revenue comes from foreign viewers and customers. I can easily see key revenue streams going down 20-30% for Barcelona when Messi leaves. They have to take lower ticket prices, they will sell less shirts and the subscriptions to La Liga broadcasting companies will also nose dive, ultimately affecting what they pay Barca directly. There's a reason La Liga didn't want to lose Messi at any costs in the summer, too. Messi leaving is nothing short of a catastrophe to Barca and La Liga.
I don't even think Messi deserves criticism. I also don't agree that Messi is responsible for a third of Barca's revenue. Barca were already a top team when he started making a name for himself. Commercial and broadcast revenues have grown exponentially in the last 15 years. Nearly every top club is worth 2/3 times what they were 15 years ago. You can't simply say Barca would be worth a third less if Messi left in 2017. Apart from that Barca have in the last 15 years had some incredible players.
Risking your financial position for one player is never justified. What's worse. They gave that kind of contract to a player who was already showing signs of fading albeit from an insane peak. Is anyone surprised by the situation? The money he's on is simply unsustainable for a club that does not depend on a benefactor.
It's not even about him being worth it. Barca could simply not afford it for the direct and indirect impact it had on their financial position. Absolutely no non-oil club would have taken him on on such numbers.
Risking your financial position for one player is never justified. What's worse. They gave that kind of contract to a player who was already showing signs of fading albeit from an insane peak. Is anyone surprised by the situation? The money he's on is simply unsustainable for a club that does not depend on a benefactor.
It's not even about him being worth it. Barca could simply not afford it for the direct and indirect impact it had on their financial position. Absolutely no non-oil club would have taken him on on such numbers.
That's madness. Barcelona should sack their commercial team if they accept shit like that. A contract is a contract. Did Real Madrid have their deal cut when Ronaldo left?
If Rakuten plan on renegotiating the deal, it probably has more to do with their financial position or Corona than Messi.
I don't get how you guys can retain that opinion given what information is being revealed.
Apparently, Barca's sponsors have Messi clauses in their contracts with Barca that at times see 50% cuts in sponsoring money if Messi leaves the team next season. .
9 out of 10 shirts sold have his name on them. Sponsors pay less if Messi misses a game.
Rakuten apparently only renewed for one season last year after the Messi rumors and lowered the deal by 45%. Beko will cut the deal by 50% if Messi isn't there next season. Preseason tours in Asia, US and Africa will earn them half as much without Messi in the team.
And yes, every club has grown but none has reached Barca figures. There's a reason the club has climbed to the top spot regarding revenues. And it is obvious who's responsible for that.
I don't know what Madrid did. But it's apparently all of their sponsors. Rakuten apparently only renewed for one year after the rumors surrounding Messi.
Also, I can absolutely see Barca audiences nose diving once Messi isn't there. Especially foreign fans watch Barca because of Messi. The guy has 180m Instagram followers to Barca's 90m. Think about that what you want but it highlights that international football support shifts away from clubs towards players. And if these numbers are anything to go by, I can easily see Barca's domestic audiences dropping by 10-20% and their international viewers by 40-50%.
Interestingly one could argue Messi astronomical wages could be one of reason preventing Barca to afford as many other star players in their team. With lack of star attraction under current Barca squad, there would be the lack of interest of sponsorship deal too should Messi decide to leave. Imagine if Neymar , Suarez are still in the team, or we go back to Xavi and Inesta era, hardly would Barca loss as many sponsorship deal if only Messi is leaving.
Yes and no. I don't think Messi's contract hampers Barca's ability to sign star players from a budgeting perspective. The 555m over 5 years are paid continuously, not in advance. Most parts of the wage are paid monthly and you see an almost immediate return on it. So if anything, the investment actually enables them to pay a higher total salary since they're making money from it.
However, Messi's presence in the team obviously outshines that of everyone else. Neymar left Barca because he wanted to step of of Messi's shadow. That's not just an ego thing. PSG can get much more out of Neymar's popularity than Barca could since they have Messi and you can't put two players in the limelight at the same time. For one club's marketing, Neymar was the icing on the cake for the other he is the cake.
Anyway, there's no player who could replace Messi from a marketing perspective. Neymar for instance also earns 90m € a year and is nowhere near as marketable as Messi. Cristiano would be a possibility but it's practically impossible for obvious reasons - not even considering his age here. So if Messi leaves, Barca probably loses a few hundred millions in profit (not revenue) over the next few seasons. They'll inevitably do anyway once he calls it quits. That's the reality for them.