Champions League exit is blow for Barca

Barcelona are out of the Champions League at the group stage for the second season in a row.  This was not supposed to be happening after Barcelona’s eventful summer 2022, with the noise of a series of financial levers being pulled and the excitement generated by new signings such as Robert Lewandowski. That was all designed to make sure the club were ready for big nights like this with a rebuilt team that could again compete for the top trophies.

A realistic summation of Barcelona’s finances came when the club’s financial vice-president Eduard Romeu admitted last week that “without the income from the “levers”, last year we would have lost €106million, and this year (the loss would be) €210million”.

Most obviously, their squad still costs way more than it should. In 2021-22, the total spent on salaries and amortised transfer fees was €518million but the budget confirms that, in 2022-23, it is up by 27 per cent to €656million after the signings of Lewandowski, Raphinha and five more new players in the summer.

Beyond the numbers, making the Champions League knockout phase is also vital to the club’s image.  Momentum is crucial to growing their fanbase and increasing their revenues from commercial partners. 

The board already have permission from socios to sell a 49 per cent stake in the club’s BLM (Barca Licensing & Merchandising) arm, although they have not yet been able to find a suitable partner willing to pay what they want. “We are looking for an industry partner but we have said we will not do any operation for less than €300million,” Romeu said.

Another potential option would be selling a share in the club’s museum, which is among the most visited tourist attractions in the Catalan capital.  Laporta’s ally Roures has already suggested he might be interested in paying up front for a stake in the its future revenues. But this is complicated by the huge renovation project at Camp Nou, which will require the museum to close for a significant amount of time over the next couple of years.

The rebuild has also added to Barcelona’s liabilities, with €1.5billion to be repaid over 25 years once the new-look stadium is completed.  In the short term, it will cost them €50million next season as construction work means the first team must play at the city’s smaller (55,000 seats) and less modern Montjuic Stadium.

The whole point of pulling all those financial levers and gambling by borrowing from their future was to make sure it could not happen again. “Virtuous circles” of the type Laporta is aiming for are not set in motion by playing in the Europa League.

With Laporta having committed to the policy of using short-term fixes to jump-start the team, more lever pulling looks almost certain now.  Whether that is really good for the club long term or not is moot. Barcelona are in too far to pull out now.