Barcelona news recently has been dominated recently by the club’s worrying financial situation with La Vanguardia reporting the club must repay €420m in debt this year or face insolvency.
The report describes the club’s debt situation as ‘runaway’ due to how it has been allowed to spiral out of control, in figures that will cause grave concern to the club’s fans.
It adds that this debt is distributed between €480m in the long term, over a year, and €420m in the short term – meaning that there is a total debt in the region of €900m at the Blaugrana.
Whilst the club has agreed a pay cut with the players to save €170m in payments this year, that is merely a postponement as it will need to be paid back to the players at a rate of €45m per year over the next four seasons.
Furthermore, the club’s current budget was based on a projection that 25 percent of football stadiums would have fans from December this year and 100 percent from February – figures which do not correspond to the reality, meaning that the budget is significantly higher than what money the club actually has.
The club accounts show that Barcelona’s debt had more than doubled during the 2019-20 campaign amid extremely worrying financial results.
The club’s financial figures, as outlined by Marca late last year, showed that the debt at the club has risen from €217m in June 2019 to €488m in June 2020.
Whilst the club’s first-team squad has been slimmed down this year, with a reported €80m off the wage bill, there is still a worrying financial outlook for the club.
Interim club president Carlos Tusquets gave a wide-ranging interview to Catalan radio station RAC1, with quotes carried in full by Marca, claiming that the club were unable to pay players for their pre-agreed January salary.