(Football news) One of football’s greatest love stories came to an end when Lionel Messi’s tearful goodbye to his boyhood club pulled the heartstrings of fans and teammates in a press conference by arguably the greatest football player there has ever been. In an era of club swaps, lack of loyalty and financially motivated decisions, Messi’s career encapsulated an era that no longer resonates with the ‘modern day footballer’ and until last summer, it was unimaginable that the Argentine would spend his career anywhere else except for his beloved F.C Barcelona. Alas, fate had different plans and Messi’s love story came to an abrupt end as he prepares for the next chapter of his career, likely at Paris Saint-Germain.
The real question that remains though, is how did this situation come to be? How could F.C Barcelona have not envisioned a situation where their star player would be unable to sign a contract extension? Is this an oversight of gigantic proportions or just a situation where those at the helm lived in denial all along? Where did it all go wrong for this historic club and what lies in the future? Let’s explore.
The convenient scapegoat for the F.C Barcelona board to justify their failure to allow Messi to seek newer pastures was that “La Liga” would not allow the deal to take place. Were they unaware of the rules and regulations? Starting over, every club is given a spending limit at the start of the season which is updated again at the January transfer window. The limit is calculated by taking the revenue and subtracting structural costs and debt repayments. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Barcelona had the highest wage limit in La Liga (€671m). However, after the pandemic, their limit was drastically reduced to an estimated €200m.
For a club that is heavily dependent on matchday sales and tourism, the COVID-19 pandemic hit F.C Barcelona the hardest. Adding to that was the fact that Barcelona have been living on the edge for too long, maximizing their spending even under normal circumstances, which left them no buffer when the pandemic hit. For a club of this size, a loss of €350m was crippling to say the least, especially considering the exorbitant wages that many Barcelona players were already on, especially Messi, who accounted for 20% of the clubs overall spending cap. This has resulted in over €100m in excess expenditure that has to be reduced, not accounting for what their new signings such as Depay, Aguero and Garcia will receive.
To add to their miseries, Barcelona are finding it difficult to offload players such as Samuel Umtiti and Philippe Coutinho who are already on €12m and €20m respectively. The situation is so desperate, the club is pleading with their players such as Lenglet, De Jong, Gerard Pique and Marc-Andre ter Stegen to take lower salaries, despite giving them improved contracts and securing a loan from Goldman Sachs worth €525m to restructure their debt.
All in all, La Liga’s stance with regards to F.C Barcelona is admirable to say the least. Messi’s departure from Spain will not just affect his club, but the league on the whole. Despite that, La Liga cannot have one set of rules for a club and another for the rest. It is a monumental failure by the F.C Barcelona board in their inability to adapt and find solutions once the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the club have only themselves to blame for all their misfortunes. If the club doesn’t get their act together quickly, it’s likely to see one of Europe’s most historic clubs in freefall purely due to mismanagement and arrogance. Only time will tell if the Blaugrana can weather this storm and emerge with just battle scars.
Also read: FC Barcelona announce shock Lionel Messi exit amid financial crisis
