Barcelona in difficulty

ilovelamp2000

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-06/barcelona-world-cup-top-scorer-s-club-seeks-loan-to-pay-players-wages.html

Barcelona, which added World Cup top scorer David Villa this offseason, is negotiating a 150 million- euro ($188.6 million) bank loan after falling behind with salary payments to players. The soccer club denied it’s bankrupt.

The 2009 European champion hopes to secure the loan in a few days, Barcelona President Sandro Rosell said, according to the team Web site. Rosell, who replaced Joan Laporta last week, didn’t identify the banks the club is negotiating with or name players affected by the wage delay.

“We have to finance” our short-term obligations such as wages, Rosell said, adding the team also plans to trade defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy back to Shakhtar Donetsk for 15 million euros, 10 million less than it paid for him in August 2009. Club members “can relax,” Rosell added. “The club isn’t bankrupt.”

Last week, Barcelona said it became the world’s biggest sports team by sales, overtaking Real Madrid. Revenue rose 16 percent to 445.5 million euros for the year through June 30 following its 2009 Champions League title. Net income was 9 million euros.

Spanish soccer clubs are under pressure from spiraling payroll costs, two years of recession and a credit crunch, according to a study last month by Barcelona University professor Jose Maria Gay. On June 16, Mediaproduccion SL, owner of the broadcast rights for the domestic league, said it sought bankruptcy protection.

TV Deal

Barcelona’s seven-year, 1 billion-euro contract with Mediapro through 2013 isn’t secured by a bank guarantee, unlike Real Madrid’s accord, Rosell said. While Barcelona has had assurances from Mediapro, concern over the contract remains, Rosell said, according to the website.

The team’s costs soared the last year as it paid out 40 million euros in bonuses to players and coaches after winning several trophies, the team said last week.

Barcelona, which is owned by its members, acquired Villa from Valencia for 40 million euros in May. He has scored five World Cup goals in five games.

Rosell played down speculation that the club is poised to sign Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, even though he said “everyone knows he wants to come here.”

He “denied adamantly” that there was any possibility of Barcelona paying 50 to 60 million euros for the midfielder. Publicity about the possible deal was “the worst thing that could have happened,” he said.

I wonder if this is a temporary problem that they can overcome or a sign that they've been living well beyond their means for too long now ?

flahavaj

Predicts a redout post in the next 3 minutes............:pac:

Surely with their turnover etc, this is no more than a temporary problem?

invinciblePRSTV

Time to dump Unicef for some shirt sponsorship dollars methinks to pay them bills.

x PyRo

Half tempted to say I'd be delighted if they were struggling but I won't.

Oops.

CR 7

tommyhaas

Que the 'Man City in for Messi' rumors

GLaDOS

With the amount they make, they shouldn't be in serious trouble

stovelid

Hello, is that McDonalds?

Don't worry about those losers, Unicef....

Warper

invinciblePRSTV wrote: »

Time to dump Unicef for some shirt sponsorship dollars methinks to pay them bills.

Never, its what makes it more than a club, after all there is that Nike swoosh on the tops which is practically the same thing. That said, Barcelona will never have some stupid eye-sore blazoned across its top. Classy club and despite all the critics it take some balls to have a charity - Unicef, which the club gives money to each year, as its first line of sight.

greendom

Maybe it's the thinking that they are "mes que un club" that's got them into this mess. Just like any other club you have to live within your means.

Warper

greendom wrote: »

Maybe it's the thinking that they are "mes que un club" that's got them into this mess. Just like any other club you have to live within your means.

Like any other club I take it you just mean the Bundesliga.

parker kent

Warper wrote: »

Never, its what makes it more than a club, after all there is that Nike swoosh on the tops which is practically the same thing. That said, Barcelona will never have some stupid eye-sore blazoned across its top. Classy club and despite all the critics it take some balls to have a charity - Unicef, which the club gives money to each year, as its first line of sight.

Yes Aston Villa are a great club

Warper

parker kent wrote: »

Yes Aston Villa are a great club

Correct

CSF

Wishful thinking on the parts of those who wish to see the big Barca phenomenon fall.

greendom

Warper wrote: »

Like any other club I take it you just mean the Bundesliga.

I'm not saying they're the only ones guilty of financial mis-management

redout

Barcelona, which added World Cup top scorer David Villa this offseason, is negotiating a 150 million- euro ($188.6 million) bank loan after falling behind with salary payments to players.

I first read this story at about 9am this morning and have since read it on about a dozen different websites and nowhere have I seen mentioned falling behind with salary payments not even from a Spanish/Catalan source. Media bull in my opinion. The club just generated the highest revenue of any sports team in history apparently - €445.5m. Plus they just last week added an extra year to their mediapro contract for another €150m. Rosell is just sticking it to Laporta if you ask me especially with statements he has been making. Financial difficulty - LoL

Pauleta

:pac:

Im delighted. People have been going on about Real Madrid and City "ruining football" whilst Barcelona who have spend 200+ million over the last couple of year has been ignored.

Give me a break over the Unicef crap as well. Fair play for giving Unicef money but its all just to pat themselves on the back. Here is an interesting read. Its probably been posted before but
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/373944-barcelona-budyonkor-uzbekistan-and-unicef

stovelid

Pauleta wrote: »

:pac:

Im delighted. People have been going on about Real Madrid and City "ruining football" whilst Barcelona who have spend 200+ million over the last couple of year has been ignored.

They do seem to have pulled off the remarkable stunt of being one of the richest and most powerful clubs in the world while coming across as some kind of workers' collective or force of benevolent goodness.

Quite ingenious.

This made me laugh about them and it sums up what I secretly think even though I do have a soft spot for them:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/22/barcelona-cesc-fabregas-barney-ronay

Eire-Dearg

I can't see a problem, what's going out in huge wage costs - who wouldn't have huge bonuses going out with the squad/contracts they've got and the trophies that they win? - is coming back massively in revenue.

the_monkey

I'd love the bank to refuse it and them to GO UNDER AND CEASE TO EXIST AS A CLUB !!!!!!!



NAZIS!!

smog

9m net from 445.5m revenue .. thats 2% and not a great business figure (I know a lot of clubs are much worse off) but this really highlights the state of clubs if this is the largest revenue generating club globally. They will get out of this but really clubs have to wise up and stop spending money like a monopoly game. Bonuses of 40m is more then they would have made with the CL money, just crazy

pickarooney

Did anyone else find that really hard to read, as though it were written in a foreign language?

gosplan

Sandro Rossell wrote:

Publicity about the possible deal (Fabregas) was “the worst thing that could have happened,” he said.

You are kidding me :D:D

Adamcp898

Publicity about the possible deal (Fabregas) was “the worst thing that could have happened,” he said.

So is that why the club had half it's squad come out sequentially and say they love Fab and he loves us and this is where he needs to be lol

Neil3030

When do/did their season tickets go on sale? What have they, 100k+ season ticket holders?

ON THE OTHER HAND - Laporta bows out in a blaze of glory signing David Villa with money the club mightn't have, intentionally calculating his final set of accounts to leave Rosell with a sizeable chunk of debt to overcome....?

I'm sure such unscrupulous political self preservation is not befitting of anyone who works for "more than a club".... :rolleyes:

Adamcp898

Neil3030 wrote: »

When do/did their season tickets go on sale? What have they, 100k+ season ticket holders?

Sure they can't have more season ticket holders than their capacity and I doubt they have 98000 of them anyway. Not all of the members have a season ticket.

Warper

stovelid wrote: »

They do seem to have pulled off the remarkable stunt of being one of the richest and most powerful clubs in the world while coming across as some kind of workers' collective or force of benevolent goodness.

Quite ingenious.

This made me laugh about them and it sums up what I secretly think even though I do have a soft spot for them:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/22/barcelona-cesc-fabregas-barney-ronay

That article reeks of jealousy and bitterness. People dont like Barca because they realise that they are the best club in the world who play the best football and nearly every player in the world dreams of playing for them. Obviously written by an EPL Sky fanboy.

flahavaj

Warper wrote: »

That article reeks of jealousy and bitterness. People dont like Barca because they realise that they are the best club in the world who play the best football and nearly every player in the world dreams of playing for them. Obviously written by an EPL Sky fanboy.

As I pointed out the last time the article was posted, itis totally tongue in cheek, the writer is practically poking fun at himself and those who do begrudge Barca their success.

Neil3030

Warper wrote: »

That article reeks of jealousy and bitterness. People dont like Barca because they realise that they are the best club in the world who play the best football and nearly every player in the world dreams of playing for them. Obviously written by an EPL Sky fanboy.

Never has a picture painted so many words I want to say -> :rolleyes:

stovelid

Warper wrote: »

Obviously written by an EPL Sky fanboy.

I think that's who he's primarily poking fun at.

It's clearly tongue-in-cheek. I grew up loving Barca and still admire them, but I can see exactly what he means.

Chill out there.

pickarooney

Warper wrote: »

That article reeks of jealousy and bitterness. People dont like Barca because they realise that they are the best club in the world who play the best football and nearly every player in the world dreams of playing for them. Obviously written by an EPL Sky fanboy.

I presumed this post was tongue in cheek also.

stovelid

pickarooney wrote: »

I presumed this post was tongue in cheek also.

Arse-cheek?

Ian_K

I see they just sold Dmytro Chygrynskiy back to Shakhtar for 15 million after paying 25mill for him 12 months ago. Not good business.



http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3277/la-liga/2010/07/06/2012391/official-dmytro-chygrynskiy-leaves-barcelona-for-shakhtar

rossie1977

ScienceNerd wrote: »

With the amount they make, they shouldn't be in serious trouble

really depends on their assets/debts, barcas revenue is about 445m euro, general motors is about $150 billion a year but they are in serious trouble

5ForKeeps

Didn't Laporta clear the debt they had at the beginning of reign as President which stood at over 300 million. So the source for all this information has to be Marca...

Barca's members wouldn't allow the club to go bankrupt they have representation on the board not like many clubs their fans have an input on club from the bottom to the top.

Mitch Connor

Ian_K wrote: »

I see they just sold Dmytro Chygrynskiy back to Shakhtar for 15 million after paying 25mill for him 12 months ago. Not good business.



http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3277/la-liga/2010/07/06/2012391/official-dmytro-chygrynskiy-leaves-barcelona-for-shakhtar

Buying for 25 - terrible.
Selling for 15 - a freaking miracle.

gosplan

redout wrote: »

I first read this story at about 9am this morning and have since read it on about a dozen different websites and nowhere have I seen mentioned falling behind with salary payments not even from a Spanish/Catalan source. Media bull in my opinion. The club just generated the highest revenue of any sports team in history apparently - €445.5m. Plus they just last week added an extra year to their mediapro contract for another €150m. Rosell is just sticking it to Laporta if you ask me especially with statements he has been making. Financial difficulty - LoL

He's said it himself

Sandro Rosell wrote:

This week we'll have everything in place to impose a policy of austerity to be able to make savings in unnecessary areas and meet very important commitments such as paying the wages of our players, coaches and employees

Ush1

stovelid wrote: »

They do seem to have pulled off the remarkable stunt of being one of the richest and most powerful clubs in the world while coming across as some kind of workers' collective or force of benevolent goodness.

Quite ingenious.

This made me laugh about them and it sums up what I secretly think even though I do have a soft spot for them:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/22/barcelona-cesc-fabregas-barney-ronay

I think that's an absolutely awful article.