The Collapse of FCBarcelona: Part 1

By Gabriel Landrein

Fútbol Club Barcelona, one of the most storied organizations in soccer, has gone through an uncharacteristically rough patch in the last few seasons. They haven't won the Spanish league (La Liga) title in the past three seasons after failing to finish first only three times in the previous ten years, and faced truly embarrassing Champions League exits against the likes of Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Roma. On the surface, it may seem like this chronic failure is simply caused by poor player and coach performance, but underneath lies a darker story.

Josep María Bartomeu, a Spanish entrepreneur, became the president of Barça in 2014. In the six years that followed until his resignation in 2020, Barça was deeply financially mismanaged, and ended up with a debt of 1.35 billion euros, despite the club regularly topping the charts of the world’s most valuable soccer clubs in this same time period. Barça’s financial ruin can be broken down into a few categories, including €617 million in bank debt, €389 million owed to players as salary, €90m in litigation, €79m in advance television rights and €56m from the 'Espai Barça' project (which consists of renovating the stadium and revamping the surrounding area in an attempt to bring in more future revenue). It may seem implausible that one of the world’s premier clubs could descend into such financial ruin, but a combination of overly ambitious projects, highly inflated player salaries, and unimaginable transfer fees landed Barcelona where it is today.

Ex-club president Josep María Bartomeu (photo credit: Pio Deportes)

A prime example of the financial mismanagement displayed by Bartomeu was the most recent contract awarded to Lionel Messi in 2017, set to keep him at the club for four seasons from that point onward. This deal was worth up to €555 million, with Messi able to earn up to €138 million per season if all variables and incentives were met successfully. For reference, Messi’s new salary with PSG nets him just over €73 million euros a season, a whopping €65 million difference. Other inflated salaries from the Barcelona team at the time included Antoine Griezmann, who earned over €35 million yearly, and Philippe Coutinho who pocketed over €24 million each year.

Griezmann and Coutinho’s names are more often repeated in a different conversation regarding bloated spending: player transfers. In soccer, unlike many American sports, players are very rarely traded for others between teams. Instead, teams pay a fixed sum of money to other teams in exchange for a player. Bartomeu also displayed severe financial mismanagement in this arena. Despite Bartomeu’s tenure with the team lasting a mere six seasons, he was responsible for three of the top ten most expensive transfers in the history of the sport. Philippe Coutinho’s transfer from Liverpool cost €120 million (with €40 million in add-ons later), and Griezmann’s from Atlético Madrid cost €120 million. It took €105 million initially to secure the rights to Ousmane Dembélé from Borussia Dortmund and an additional €45 million later in add-ons.

Lionel Messi in the 2019-2020 season (photo credit: Complex)

These numbers are astounding on their own, but the reality of these transfers becomes even more dire when taking into account each player’s contribution on the field. Coutinho, despite being Barça’s most expensive transfer ever, scored a paltry 16 goals across 4 seasons in the Spanish first division, a figure comparable to Jordi Alba’s 11 goals in the same stretch. The key difference between the two is Coutinho is a left winger and Alba is a left back, meaning that Alba is paid to play defense, whereas Coutinho’s job is to score. Antoine Griezmann fared slightly better, scoring 21 goals in two seasons with the club. Despite being better than Coutinho, 10.5 goals per season from a player who cost over €100 million euros is not a favorable return.

Josep María Bartomeu’s overreaches in terms of spending have cost FC Barcelona dearly. The price paid for financial mismanagement off the field, such as awarding overrich contracts and overspending on transfers, leads to lesser performance on the field. Due to these financial factors, in addition to key underperformance in crucial situations, Barça has gone from being one of the most revered and feared clubs in the world to a mess of a club frowned upon by Europe’s other elite teams. Joan Laporta, who was club president in Barcelona’s ‘golden era’ from 2003 to 2010, was reelected as president in 2021 and will attempt to right the ship.

Current club president Joan Laporta (photo credit: The Guardian)

Stay tuned for part 2, where I will analyze Laporta’s plan to fix Barça’s situation, and how it may go horribly wrong.