Skip to main content

Is the Barcelona model coming to an end?

FC Barcelona is in an acute crisis. But it’s also in a chronic, long-term crisis writes Simom Kuper in the Financial Times.

Even if the club can fix the current mess, it’s hard to see how it can retain its spot at the top of football. His new book Barça: The Inside Story of the World’s Greatest Football Club traces a fall from a golden age. 

Barça’s gross debt is now about €1.2bn. La Liga’s financial rules bar the club from spending money it doesn’t have on registering new players.  This week Barcelona announced that its star player Lionel Messi will be forced to leave the club due to the regulations imposed by La Liga, Spain’s top division.

After Messi, help may come from CVC Capital Partners’ proposed injection of €2.7bn into La Liga. Though the money reportedly isn’t supposed to be spent on players, some of it may find its way into Barcelona’s wage bill, easing the acute crisis, although club chief Joan Laporta claimed the deal isn't in Barca's best interests. Still, that leaves the chronic one. 

In the 2019-20 season, Barcelona have just hung on to its title as the world’s highest-grossing football club with annual revenues of €715.1m, according to consultants Deloitte.  But Real Madrid and Bayern Munich were already closing the gap, and should overtake the Catalans after Barça’s failed 2020-21 season. 

Sponsors are also cooling on Barcelona. Last October, shirt sponsor Rakuten renewed its contract for only one more season, until 2022, and for just €30m plus bonuses, which was €25m a year less than the previous deal. 

Barça’s prize money has fallen. And the Camp Nou stadium, built in 1957 and barely renovated since 1982, looks tatty beside the shiny stadiums with ample commercial space that have shot up around Europe.  

Kuper can’t see what Barça’s USP is after Messi. Perhaps the Barcelona model is coming to an end.

 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Millwall punch above their weight

Millwall’s season was overshadowed by the tragic death of owner John Berylson following a car accident. The American had been an exemplary owner, beloved by the fans for his leadership, passion and generosity. Millwall’s finances had been pretty good during his tenure, which we shall explore by looking at the most recent accounts from the 2022/23 season, when the club narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs after finishing 8th. Millwall’s pre-tax loss slightly reduced from £12.6m to £12.2m, as revenue rose £0.8m (4%) from £18.6m to a club record £19.4m and player sales improved from a £0.1m loss to £2.5m profit. However, other operating income dropped from by £1.1m from £1.3m to £0.2m, while operating expenses increased £1.7m (5%) from £31.6m to £33.3m. The main driver of the revenue increase was broadcasting, which rose £1.1m (12%) from £9.1m to £10.2m, though match day was also up £0.4m (7%) from £5.8m to £6.2m. In contrast, commercial fell £0.7m (19%) from £3.7m to £3....
Post a Comment
Read more