As the football industry shuddered from the reverberations of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bright minds in the Barcelona boardroom concocted a plan. With the club beset by financial angst, one of their executives approached UEFA, the organiser of the Champions League, with a proposal.
Barcelona required loans to ease the pain caused by years of poor decision-making in the transfer market and extravagance on player salaries, all of which was exacerbated by a pandemic that shattered commercial and matchday income.
The idea, therefore, was to apply for a loan from a bank and use anticipated future broadcast revenues from playing in the Champions League as the security for the loan.
UEFA’s response was a straightforward “no” and European football’s governing body explained to the Barcelona official that they could not use several years’ worth of future Champions League television money as security because there was no guarantee they would qualify for the tournament in every season. This is because Champions League qualification is secured through sporting merit, rather than a birthright.
The Barcelona official was described as genuinely surprised by the rejection.
When approached this week, UEFA told The Athletic it was unable to comment publicly due to “the confidentiality of the process”.
Perhaps, though, this is the kind of desperation and, at times, hubris that has led many rival club executives and football supporters across the world to eye Barcelona with bewilderment in recent times.
This summer, the curiosity has, in places, developed into envy and resentment, as Barcelona spent a combined €140million (£117m, $142.8m) to sign Brazil winger Raphinha from Leeds United, Poland forward Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich and France centre-back Jules Kounde from Sevilla. They also picked up Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie from Chelsea and AC Milan respectively on free transfers.
Barcelona also still hope to sign two further Chelsea players, with defensive pair Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso both targets.
Along the way, they have exasperated clubs across Europe, most notably in beating Arsenal and Chelsea to Raphinha, before outflanking Chelsea once again over Kounde. Barcelona have also re-signed France winger Ousmane Dembele after his previous deal expired in June, while beating arch-rivals Real Madrid to Racing Santander’s promising teenager Pablo Torre.
And they would still quite fancy adding Bernardo Silva from Manchester City.
The tension has been exacerbated by an extraordinary economic backdrop to Barcelona’s activity.
Only two months ago, club president Joan Laporta said the Camp Nou side had been “clinically dead” when he was elected in March 2021. He added that Barcelona “remained in the ICU”.
Last August, Laporta gave a press conference in which he revealed a debt of €1.35billion (£1.13bn, $1.38bn) before outlining how the club’s salary obligations accounted for 103 per cent of income (even after Lionel Messi had left the club as a free agent once his deal expired) and said the club’s net worth stood at minus €451million.
A loan worth €80million had been taken out to cover player wages earlier in the calendar year. Another line of credit worth €550million had been required from Goldman Sachs to restructure the club’s debts.
Long-serving defender Gerard Pique accepted a wage cut last summer so that Barcelona could actually register new signings Eric Garcia and Memphis Depay.
The club’s chief executive Ferran Reverter — who has since departed amid disagreements with Laporta — said that an audit of the club’s finances revealed Barcelona to be “technically bankrupt” and added they would have been “dissolved” if they had been a PLC (Public Limited Company).
Reverter has not been replaced, with Laporta simply expanding his portfolio.
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