The Catalans miraculously survived after the reign of Bartomeu.
In Xavi’s team you don’t play for money
Barcelona cannot offer big contracts to players. Portuguese João Felix has arrived on loan after turning down a tidy sum of money. Atlético forced the striker to extend his contract until 2028, but asked for a salary cut from six to three million euros. Approximately this is how much Roman Zobnin earns at Spartak.
The Blue Garnet will only be able to manage €400,000 for Felix from September to May. The footballer loses almost 17 million euros. And this is not the first such case. Piqué, whom former club legal director Roman Gomez Pontii referred to in correspondence as “the unscrupulous son of a prostitute”, has forgiven Barcelona €52m in wage arrears.
Bartomeu first handed out money: Messi received 15% of Barcelona’s budget, and then, due to the pandemic and a sharp drop in revenue, he could not fulfill his obligations. The club’s managers came up with an illegal way out, leaked the details of the contracts to the press. The police have launched an investigation, which has allowed access to the correspondence of Barcelona officials.
They called Messi “a dwarf on hormones” and “a sewer rat”. And now Barcelona are having a hard time registering newcomers, they spent 3.4 million euros on midfielder Romeu for summer transfers. The transfer is a little more expensive, but the Girona player covered part of the sum out of his own pocket. A humiliating summer for the colossus that was close to one billion euros a year.
Bartomeu lost 200 million euros in one day
In 2020, at the height of the coronavirus, the Catalan president received an offer to transfer Messi for 200 million euros. Lionel was finishing the last year of his contract, Barcelona could not renew it. Bartomeu knew this very well, but he refused. The club president has all the reporting in hand, he probably knew that the new contract was out of the question. It seems that Bartomeu wanted to harm the club.
Josep didn’t want to be remembered as the man who lost Messi. A few months later, Bartomeu stepped down as club president, and Laporta lied to the fans that there was a financial opportunity to extend the contract with Messi. Instead of 200 million euros, Barcelona were left with Lionel’s salary debts. The Spanish club will close these debts until 2025.
Bartomeu disliked Messi and the other Barcelona legends. About 1 million euros were paid from the blue garnet treasury to the bot farm, which insulted Lionel, his wife, Piqué, Xavi, Puyol and even Guardiola. You have to be an incredibly illiterate coach to refuse 200 million euros for a player of the same age who then went away for free.
The player received millions in 17 minutes
Central midfielder Matheus moved from Palmeiras to Barcelona in January 2020 and played 17 minutes. The transfer cost 7 million euros and promised bonuses. And then the circus began. Although Matheus dreamed of playing for Barcelona since childhood, he was disillusioned with his favorite club. Coach Kuman pretended that such a player didn’t exist. The boy was paid a year’s salary and the contract was terminated.
The footballer went to court and, predictably, won. The compensation amounts to 8.5 million euros. The midfielder returned to Brazil as a free agent, they didn’t imagine selling him to another team. As a result, one minute of Matheus on the field cost the Catalans about one million euros. And the loss of earnings due to the low level of management amounts to hundreds of millions of euros.
After the departure of Neymar for 222 million euros PSG Barcelona scouts suggested that Bartomeu take a closer look at Haaland. The striker could be signed for 20 million euros, but Raiola’s agent has asked for similar fees. The Blaugrana president cut the deal. In addition, the Catalans delayed the decision, did not convince the young Mbappe to choose Barcelona and took Dembele instead.
The president is left with a billion dollar debt
The Prosecutor’s Office of Catalonia is looking for an alternative version of the payments to the former chief referee Negreira so that they do not have to throw Barcelona into the Segunda. One of the versions is money laundering by the club’s management. Weak theory. The amount is relatively small and the payments have lasted 17 years. This means that the four presidents of Barcelona, all arrested by the prosecution and one in prison, blindly trusted the official and his son.
By the way, Bartomeu could also be jailed for transfer fraud, but he paid a fine and made a deal with the investigation. And now he fails to explain many of the decisions that led to Barcelona’s loss of revenue and increased spending. As a result, the club has obscene debts, and Laporte has only one way out – to reduce the budget. On the salaries of the departed players they managed to save 161 million euros.
This is just one of many steps taken to cure Barcelona of its credit crunch. Bartomeu’s lack of professionalism almost killed a big club and now he is quietly spending his earned millions. And he can also escape prison by hiring expensive lawyers. Prosecutors dream of putting him behind bars. They also found friends of the former president, through whom he allegedly collected money from the club. It remains to put pressure on these acquaintances of Bartomeu.
If the accomplices confess to the fraud and testify, Josep will be burned for petty crime. Barcelona fans will surely be happy if the ex-president of the club gets what he deserves according to the law. Invent a director like that in a football movie, then the screenwriters would be accused of a penchant for hyperbole. A real coach cannot refuse 200 million euros in the midst of the pandemic and also make dozens of transfer mistakes.
Barcelona players gave Bartomeu the nickname Nobita a long time ago. This is a capricious, naughty and hysterical character from the anime Doraemon, who looks like Josep. But the painted boy did not leave behind 1.35 billion euros in debt and a number of real problems. No one knows how many other Barcelona prosecutors will investigate in the future.
