by sussexpob » Mon Aug 08, 2022 11:31 am
As time goes on, Barcelona look more and more doomed. This weekend, La Liga confirmed that the club could not register any of the 7 players who signed contracts for them this summer(5 new purchases and 2 contract renewals) due to overspending on their budget, and with a few days to the new season its increasingly hard to see how they will be able to work round it. At the moment, several players havent even been paid for July and June, and the scale of their debt means they are in deep trouble.
La Liga set a rule whereby Barcelona have to sell 4 times the value of players in order to register players. Barcelona signed over 150 million transfers this year, and sold only one player for 20.... their net transfer expenditure means they need to find 600 million to register said players.... and thats before the fact that they need to cut the wage bill by 144 million for the year before even considering adding new players (who are said to be worth 3 times more than the players they have moved on in wages, so that cut amount is said to be closer to 200 million).
To do this, Barcelona sold a large portion their TV rights to a third party for future years for a reported 667 million. Even on its own, this deal is massively damaging to the future business, as they are selling revenue in future years to stay afloat now.... the fact the money generated is being largely ploughed into players and wages is unthinkable. Their debt is out of control and interest on their debt worses with every passing day..... yet they cut their revenues, and took on more debt? How does this end?
A revelation at the weekend made this deal eye wateringly bad. The truth is, Barcelona seem to have attempted to play a little game of cooking the books with some accountancy fraud. Far from selling the TV rights directly, they setup a third party company to buy the rights, a company owned by Barcelona and the rights buyers, Sixth Street Sports. Six Street only put up around 450-500 million, well under the billed amount sold for and a catastrophic undervaluing.... Barcelona put up the rest, but the problem is this is phantom money. They basically loaned the subsidiary company 150-200 million euros of money that never went anywhere, then claimed that the third party company paid that money back to Barcelona, in doing so trying to artificially show that the club had made that money as a profit, and not in fact that all the payments never actually existed and all they were attempting to do was loan themselves money that didnt exist on paper.
The net effect is La Liga seen through it and rejected it as a profit, opening calls about apparent fraud activity. And even worse for Barcelona, the phantom payment on the books will open them up for tax liabilities on the apparent profit.... to the tune of 50 million Euros. All in all, their attempts have blasted another huge tranche of tax debt onto the club.
Word coming out in Spain is that Laporte has pretty much gone mad. Even yesterday as these relevations came out, Chelsea stated that Barcelona were trying to buy Marcus Alonso with the player missing their game at Everton because he wants to leave. Bernardo Silva at City is also in a similar boat... they are STILL trying to buy players?? I mean, its beyond comprehension at this point.
And while the club does all this, they are attempting to bully those players they dont want out the club. Samuel Umtiti and Martin Braithwaite are being smeared in Spanish press for having the audacity of turning up to work, and not accepting simply to tear up their contract for no money in return. Both seem to have taken the principal stand that they wont be bullied out of the money they are owed, while Barcelona have stated openly both players will be sacked for gross misconduct unless they agree transfers elsewhere - the misconduct is apparently not caring for the good of Barcelona football club by accepting to leave for free.
And even this morning Laporte said he will not be selling Frenkie De Jong, despite interest. Well, if the plan to raise money is to spend more and refuse to sell anyone, then what happens? This is stupidity on a different level.
All this raises questions about what FIFPro and UEFA are doing. Leeds Chairman came out to say Barcelona have not paid a penny on the Raphinha deal, and its clear other clubs are experiencing the same. If Barcelona dont pay 67 million pounds by August 31st, technically Leeds can sue... and the player? Well the window for transfers will be gone, leaving the player unable to play and Leeds in a position where they can void the deal, but lose the player to unregistration... this could apply to Lewandowski and others.
And Barcelona are way over FFP.... like mentally over. A Champions League ban or fine, cut from Europe, a La Liga ban or fine for breaching its rules.... I mean, without CL revenue worth 100 million a year, Barcelona are DONE. Totally DONE... smoke them a kipper, but they wont be back for breakfast.
A total sham. The club need to sack Laporte and stop this Caligulia like madness now before he drags one of the greatest sporting institutions ever to exist down with him.
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And a hat and bra to you too, my good sirs!