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FC Barcelona – Paying The Price Of Mismanagement

From the early 2000s, FC Barcelona dominated, not just La Liga, but in international football as well. World famous players like Messi, Xavi, Busquets, David Villa, Iniesta, and Pique ruled the pitch. Then came the era of Pep Guardiola, with the team playing almost perfectly. During the 20010-2011 season, Messi was to score 53 goals in 55 matches. But behind the scenes, Camp Nou was living it large and well beyond their means. As all good things come to an end, Barcelona now faces a tough time.

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FC Barcelona Struggles to Clear $1.3bn Debt

After years of success, it turns out that behind the scenes, FC Barcelona was being run into the ground. It turns out that their jackpot winning strategies have turned to dust. Thanks to serious financial mismanagement, they are unable to clear the enormous debts and therefore cannot register any new signings. This will certainly affect their betting odds of being able to succeed in a La Liga title. Go to 22Bet Sportsbook to see for yourself.

FC Barcelona Was Living It Large

If there ever was a story of hubris, it’s that of FC Barcelona. Now they find themselves almost a billion and a half dollars in debt. Coupled with an inability to register any new players, we are witnessing the collapse of an old empire. Thanks to two years of financial mismanagement, along with some desperate attempts to try and stabilise the situation, we now see one of the world’s most famous soccer teams start to crumble. With the new season beginning, we can’t help but feel they will struggle to win any of the important jackpot games.

Cleaning up Bartomeu’s Mess

In 2020, just before a vote was cast to eject the former owner, Joseph Maria Bartomeu decided to do the honourable thing and fell on his own sword. But simply resigning would not quit him of the guilt of having amassed such an eye-watering amount of debt. Thanks to years of Barcelona’s success on a football field, he thought he was unstoppable, even though he was involved in many unfavourable and unsavoury incidents. These range from trying to create the maligned European Super League, to pushing out the club’s greatest-ever player, Leo Messi. Not only that, but he consistently launched smear campaigns against former players and coaches. His leaving was a perfect case of good riddance to bad rubbish.

Joan Laporta Takes Over FC Barcelona

After Bartomeu reluctantly quit, the team turned to a former manager, Joan Laporta, who had previously been the manager between 2003 to 2010. In truth, he inherited a poisoned chalice. With the loss of so much talent and impending financial peril hanging over his head, he was already in a tough position. “When we came a year ago, the club was in critical condition,” Laporta said in June, concluding: “We are moving it to intensive care.”

Selling Off Assets

Planning to implement a set of “levers”, Laporta was determined to drag the football club out of debt. The first of these levers was the sale of 10% of the team’s television rights to an American investment company called Sixth Street. Soon after, the second lever gave the same company 15% of the rights. This resulted in the Catalan club receiving €517 million in return for selling 25% of their television rights for the following 25 years.

Then on August 1st, Laporta said that FC Barcelona should activate the third lever. This was the sale of 25% of Barca Studios, which is the hub for digital content creation and distribution. It ended up going to a controversial blockchain-based fan platform called Socios.com, for €400 million. Then Laporta sold another 24.5% of the media arm. This one went to GDA Luma, a company formed by the president of Cirque du Soleil. It ended up bringing in €100 euros.

Questionable Numbers

Though the sale of assets was to help Barcelona’s financial rehabilitation, it turns out that they could be up against themselves. It appears that FC Barcelona used €150 million of its own money in order to inflate the sale price of the first 2 leavers. Though the team claims that the sale produced €667million euros in funding, it turns out that Sixth Street only played €517 million. Obviously, something dodgy was going on. In the end, Laporte wasn’t able to pull the wool over the eyes of La Liga, who insisted on booking the lower figure.

Registration Still Pending

With the season almost upon us, there are still many crucial players who need to be registered into the squad. These include Robert Lewandowski, Franck Kessié, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha, Ousmane Dembélé, Jules Koundé, and Sergi Roberto. Just three members on this list cost a combined €160 million. A couple of them are free agents, and two are presently incumbents at Camp Nou.

Treating FC Barcelona Players Badly

Unfortunately, with financial pressure hanging over them, the management at Barcelona has resorted to more extreme measures to try and create some financial freedom. This includes threatening their own players. For example, according to 22Bet Sportsbook, midfielder Frenkie de Jong has born many of these Barcelona attacks. The club already knows him €17 million as back payments and needs to make another payment of €21 million this year. But the team have told him that he needs to accept 50% of this or leave the club.

The Title Odds Are Dropping

Last season FC Barcelona finished second in La Liga. They were 13 points behind Real Madrid and 2 points ahead of Atletico Madrid. Notably, they also had nearly twice as many losses as Sevilla, which was in 4th place. Right now, we can see that they are in serious need of investment. The present manager is the former player and club legend Xavi. He has shown some promise. But many believe he is too young to have the depth and knowledge necessary to sustain a viable title challenge. Though there’s always hope, this year they may miss the football jackpot. If you’re thinking of betting on them, then we don’t think that Xavi can increase your jackpot winning chances.