Barcelona are BANKRUPT - Hoeness
Cameron Smith
- Updated: 14 Sept 2021 13:37 BST
- 3 min read
Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has revealed his thoughts on the current financial situation at Barcelona.
The Catalan giants' struggles have been well documented, with debts reported to exceed €1.2 billion, and they, of course, lost Lionel Messi in the summer.
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Antoine Griezmann also left, with Luuk de Jong arriving in an attempt to balance the books.
Barcelona, under the management of Ronald Koeman, will face Bayern in the Champions League group stages in what will be the first clash since the 8-2 thrashing handed out to the Blaugrana by Bayern a year ago.
What has been said?
Hoeness, who had two stints of presidency at Bayern, spoke to Radio Bavaria in comments reported by Marca to discuss the situation at Barcelona. He said that in Germany, Barcelona would be "a case for a judge responsible for insolvency. Barcelona are actually bankrupt."
Germany, and the Bundesliga, is typically full of well-run clubs who operate on small budgets, yet punch above their weight. Barcelona are on the other end of the scale having spent over £100 million each on Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Griezmann in recent years.
Several stars have had to take pay cuts, and their new signings such as Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia weren't registered until recently due to the club exceeding La Liga's salary limit. It was the pay cuts taken by players such as Gerard Pique that allowed those new signings to play for the club this season.
Talented youngster Ilaix Moriba was also sold, to RB Leizpig, while they spent most of the summer trying to offload Samuel Umtiti without any luck.
Bayern, on the other hand, were able to pinch Julian Nagelsmann, Dayot Upamecano, and Marcel Sabitzer from Leipzig - strengthening their own squad while weakening a rival's.
The two clubs are joined by Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv in Group E of the Champions League.
