Barcelona want, want, want - but they can't afford it

Ben Jacobs

• Updated: 12 Jul 2022 04:38 CDT
• 4 min read

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Barcelona want, want, want - but they simply cannot afford it.

The club's dire financial situation is now well-documented. The debt is now in the region of €1.3 Billion and there's numerous initiatives being put in place to somehow generate revenue.

The main prospect are 'the two levers' - the two ways in which Barca can generate revenue quickly.

Lever one involves selling what amounts to a percentage of the Barcelona brand - that is, 49% of the merchandising rights sold off to an investment group.

Lever two involves selling a percentage of future TV rights in exchange for money now. This will be a 25-year arrangement. Both levers are expected to raise around €600m in the immediate term.

But this will merely stem the bleeding. President Joan Laporta has compared the club to an "F1 car whose engine has seized", and that's an apt description of the situation they find themselves in.

Barcelona's 'archaic' set-up

Barcelona are still hoping that they can make a profit from their 'flagship' players.

Should they do well, that will have a cash-in value collectively and for the individual players.

But Raphinha is not Lionel Messi. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is not Messi. The challenge that Barcelona have is that they are spending, assuming they get all the targets they are after, €170m or maybe more.

If they continue like this, the danger is that they will be unable to sustain themselves. Clubs have to find a way to modernise their recruitment model to ensure that the players that make it have pathways to the first team.

The modernisation aspect of the outgoings is getting value also for players that don't make it, but you can still get a good fee for. Barcelona have not been good at that.

Then there's the modernisation of the stadium. They have to find a way of getting non-football business and a more modern matchday experience. Barcelona's model is archaic - they want, want, want, but they cannot afford. Off the field, the club remains a worrying mess.

Barcelona's debt explained

What has racked up the debt is the historically high wage bill, and also holding onto a player like Messi for too long.

The debt has been racked up in things like bonuses and incremental wage increases offered to players. If you look at Ousmane Dembele and Frenkie de Jong, they have been asked to take pay cuts of 40%. They were too generous in their initial negotiations as well as with the bonus scheme on top, and so money owed to players has racked up completely.

Barcelona have always had relationships with super agents because they want box office names, but have also paid high agents fees and it has caught up with them.

And when you have the uncertainty of the covid pandemic, elite clubs can struggle more. Shirt sales, ticket sales, fans not spending as much, as well as lucrative friendlies, that's put them out of pocket too and contributed to the debt.

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That's the situation they are trying to extricate themselves from, and it is proving far more difficult than they might have imagined - especially as they continue to spend in the meantime.