The poor management of the Josep Maria Bartomeu regime was one of the reasons why Lionel Messi left Barcelona. Bartomeu has committed a number of “sins” to make the Barca stronghold in the financial abyss.
Barcelona has officially announced that they are ending their partnership with Lionel Messi. Messi, whose contract expires on June 30, 2021, has also said goodbye to Barcelona, the club he has defended for 17 years, on Sunday (8/8/2021).
The main problem that makes Barcelona have to let Messi go is their salary burden which is still too high. LaLiga has determined that the limit for salary expenditure versus income is at 70 percent. Meanwhile, Barcelona’s salary expenditure increased by almost 50 percent during the 2017-2020 period.
Club President Joan Laporta explained that Barcelona’s current salary burden reached 95 percent of income. This has prevented Barca from registering players for the 2021-2022 LaLiga competition due to salary restrictions. In fact, if Messi is willing to play without being paid, Barcelona’s salary burden is still too large to meet LaLiga regulations.
“The club is above everything, even above the best players in the world,” said Laporta. “We reached an agreement (with Messi), but were unable to formalize it due to the economic situation of the club, which meant we were unable to register players due to salary restrictions. Without Messi’s salary, the salary (burden) would reach 95 percent of Barcelona’s income. Meanwhile, ideally, it should not exceed 70 percent. So, there is still a lot of work to be done,” added Laporta.
So why Barcelona’s financial condition can be so bad? One of the reasons was a blunder by the previous president of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu. Bartomeu who led Barcelona from 2014 to 2020 made a number of wrong steps that made Barcelona’s balance sheet unbalanced. However, Bartomeu’s sin was not only about financial management:
Lavish spending on transfers and player salaries.
Barcelona has brought in a total of 34 players during the Bartomeu regime. The funds spent by the Camp Nou camp to bring in these players reached more than 1 billion euros. Meanwhile, Barca’s five most expensive purchases under Bartomeu were Philippe Coutinho (145 million euros), Ousmane Dembele (130), Antoine Griezmann (120), Frenkie de Jong (75), and Mirale Pjanic (60). Not only royal in matters of player transfers, Barcelona also does not hesitate to give high salaries.
The situation got worse when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Barcelona, which has a high salary burden, also loses a very large nominal income. According to a report by Mundo Deportivo in January, Barcelona could actually make a profit of up to 990 million euros in the 2018-2019 season. However, last season, Barca’s profits fell 14 percent to 855 million euros.
This leaves them in a deficit because spending is greater than income, which is 955 million euros. Barcelona’s current president, Joan Laporta, admits that the poor management of the previous era has left them in dire straits.
Barcagate Scandal
Bartomeu is alleged to have hired a public relations firm, I3 Ventures, to be his personal buzzer. The company was hired to boost Bartomeu’s image and bring down political opponents and players who opposed his policies. Reportedly, Bartomeu paid the company using Barcelona money. In addition, the Barcagate scandal allegedly also dragged Bartomeu in a money laundering case.
Conflict with Messi
Before actually parting with Barcelona, Lionel Messi had the desire to leave Camp Nou at the end of the 2019-2020 season. However, at that time Bartomeu refused and threatened to take the case to court. Because he still loves Barcelona, Messi chose to relent by not fighting them in court. Messi then decided to stay at Camp Nou for the 2020-2021 season. However, Messi finally had to part with Barcelona.
