Barcelona make £237m decision Liverpool would never consider

There has been much written about Barcelona’s struggles to deal with the financial fallout that was exacerbated, not caused, by Covid-19.

The pandemic exposed the house of cards the Catalan giants had in place, with the spiralling debt and reduction in income meaning one of world football’s most storied clubs was forced to impose austerity, even having to allow their most talismanic player in Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest to have ever played the game, to leave the Nou Camp.

Around £1bn in debt, struggling to put together a squad that would fit under the La Liga mandated wage bill they had been forced to work within due to their financial pressures, Messi and Antoine Griezmann both departed to save heavy sums on the wage bill, something that was also aided by the departure of the club’s £142m signing from Liverpool in 2018, Philippe Coutinho, who joined Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa. Coutinho’s move is a loan with an option to buy for around £33m, a figure that would represent a £109m loss on the deal.

Players had to leave so that the club could register new signings, with Ferran Torres paraded as a Barca player even though the club admitted that, at the time, they couldn’t register him due to his wages taking them over the salary cap.

A club that has so long been seen as the ultimate destination for footballers saw it’s January transfer business consist of adding Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Adama Traore and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Both good players, neither likely to take Barcelona anywhere close to the levels that they need to operate.

They are in danger of being left behind by the likes of Liverpool.

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The Reds lost money during the pandemic, as did nearly every football club in the world. No fans in stadiums and the need to hand back money to broadcasters has seen debt in European football stand at around €6bn, according to financial analysts Deloitte.

Liverpool saw a pre-tax profit of £42m in 2019 swing to a £46m loss before tax in 2020 as the onset of the pandemic took its toll.

The accounts for Liverpool for 2020/21 are set to be published in the coming weeks, likely before the end of February, and further losses could be on the cards, although a strong commercial year and increased media revenues when compared to the previous accounting period, as well as improved Champions League performance could see the Reds post better than expected results.

Owners Fenway Sports Group have had to contend with seeing three sports teams through a pandemic, owning the Boston Red Sox baseball team and the RFK Racing NASCAR outfit across the Atlantic, and losses have been mitigated compared to some of their rivals due to the more focused financial approach.

Barcelona are out of this year’s Champions League, exiting rather embarrassingly at the group stage. That failure will cost them tens of millions in revenue, with the Europa League’s financial rewards almost a drop in the ocean compared to what is on offer in European football’s most glittering club competition.

Sitting fourth in La Liga and a long way off leaders Real Madrid, Barcelona are nervously looking over their shoulder.

Missing out on the top four would mean missing out on the Champions League and all its riches, something which has been a given for Barcelona for many years.

If they missed out on the top four they would have to hope they were the ones who lifted the Europa League this season, again, not a foregone conclusion given Barcelona’s current state and other teams in the competition such as Napoli, Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Europa League specialists Sevilla.

The uncertainty, allied with the desperate financial situation, has seen a club that used to pride itself on being so big that it didn’t need to conform to the conventions of others, such as having a shirt sponsor, have to sell out in order to compete.

According to Catalan radio station RAC1, and via The Times, Barcelona are closing in on a three-year deal worth £237m for the stadium naming rights of the Nou Camp, with streaming platform Spotify the company who will have its name in lights.

The Spotify Nou Camp would be a major financial boost for Barcelona, but the last remaining tradition that they had will have gone, a demonstration of their financial mismanagement in recent years.

It was 2006 when Barcelona had their first front of shirt sponsor when charity UNICEF was given one of the most prominent advertising spaces in world sport.

No fee was paid for that deal, with UNICEF having raised as much as £16m from the partnership that they had with the Spanish giants.

But in 2011 they finally broke with tradition and signed a huge commercial deal with the Qatar Foundation, which would then become Qatar Airways until the relationship ended in 2017.

Japanese electronics firm Rakuten would then take over the rights, but as their deal came to an end in 2020 they only decided to extend for one year at a much reduced rate, showing the diminished power of the Barcelona brand.

Barcelona are understood to be in talks with cryptocurrency firms about taking a record front of shirt sponsorship deal for next season.

The rapid rise of cryptocurrency in the past 18 months means there is a lot of capital available right now, and landing a big fish such as Barcelona would be seen as a major boon for a largely unregulated industry that faces a challenge to win a public relations war owing to a rather sketchy reputation thus far due to its financial volatility and environmental impact.

The stand they took on sponsorship was admirable, but with the increased financial pressures and need to spend big in the transfer market to satisfy supporters’ insatiable desire to see the biggest names sign for the club no matter the cost, taking the money for shirt sponsorship was always likely.

The same thing has happened in US sport with the likes of the NBA now having corporate partners on their jerseys when it was forbidden for decades previous.

But in selling the stadium sponsorship rights it is the last step for them to take in just becoming another club that lives on a motto that it no longer truly lives the values of.

Of course, people will still call the Nou Camp by its original name, but it will become the Spotify Nou Camp and that will be the title it will hold officially.

Traditions are important, that’s why Liverpool fans were so angry when the European Super League plot reared its head last year, something which they told FSG in no uncertain terms needed to be filed under ‘not happening, ever’

To FSG’s credit they have gone further than any other team involved in the ESL debacle, working with the Spirit of Shankly supporters group to create a Supporters Board that will include representatives from a number of fan groups.

FSG would have to consult the Supporters Board to launch an ESL bid again and would need their consent, the power written within the articles of association at the football club.

Other things such as moving the club away from Anfield or even renaming Anfield for commercial purposes would also need to have the green light from the fans.

Liverpool would be able to command one of the biggest stadium naming rights in world football with a stadium as globally iconic as Anfield.

But it’s very hard to imagine something like that coming to pass, traditions are important, especially to Liverpool fans.

Would the money to sign a striker for two or three years really be worth selling out to such a degree? Some may feel yes, it’s hard to imagine that the overwhelming majority would feel that way, though.

But Barcelona, a club who remain wedded to the idea of the ESL, have dug themselves a hole so deep that they can no longer take any kind of moral high ground.

They need the money more than they need to hold on to traditions that have been in place for 65 years.

Mes que un club has been the Barca motto for many decades. A Catalan phrase it translates as ‘more than a club’. It’s hard to see that motto being the right fit for Barcelona in the present day.