Barcelona’s fall from grace: Barcelona is currently experiencing one of its lowest ever points, after assembling two of the greatest teams in the history of football, Barcelona’s disintegration comes out as a very dramatic one. Follow InsideSport.IN for More update
¡Ahora y siempre, força Barça! pic.twitter.com/5IGKam3NIO
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) December 9, 2021
From having the highs of winning trebles as recently as 2015, the Catalans are experiencing the lows of Europa League football and it should be rightfully said that Barca are no longer among the game’s elite.
Barcelona’s fall from Grace: Bartomeu- financial crisis, transfer failures, scandals and much more
Barcelona did not qualify for the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 for the first time in 21 years, the five-time European champions endured their worst Champions League campaign in two decades on Thursday, as another humiliating defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich sealed elimination at the group stage.
FC Barcelona has one of the biggest debts in footballing history, with the club owing $1.57 billion to various entities and majority of the debt is to be paid in the short-term.
At one point, FC Barcelona had become the first club in any sport ever to surpass $1bn in annual revenues. Now its gross debt is about $1.4bn.
How did this happen to one of the most elite football clubs in the world?https://t.co/lxXRecl6We
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) August 6, 2021
But how did the situation escalate so quickly?
Not only were Barcelona financially stable in 2017 and 2018, but the Spanish giants were a FINANCIAL POWERHOUSE, being linked to almost all of the world’s best players.
Barcelona’s collapse started after former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu had to sell Barcelona’s crown jewel “Neymar” to PSG after the French club paid his release clause, Neymar moved for a world record fee of 222 million euros. Despite the huge influx of cash, the board made some horrendous decisions as they tried to find a suitable replacement for the Brazilian. Barcelona bought three big names to freshen up the squad:
- Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 for £135.5million (including add-ons)
- Phillipe Coutinho from Liverpool in 2018 for £142million (including add-ons)
- Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid in 2019 for €120 million (including add-ons)
The Barcelona board went on to spend an approximate amount of €450 million in the next three seasons but none of the three big players they signed offered any return on the investment that the Catalans made. All the three signings completely flopped and didn’t generate Neymar’s output level.
Despite winning the league title in consecutive seasons- 2017/18 and 2018/19 by a considerable margin there were signs of decline in the teams, with many of the senior player like Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Ivan Rakitic showing signs of ageing.
Barcelona’s fall from Grace: Bartomeu- financial crisis, transfer failures, scandals and much more
2019/20 was season in which Barcelona’s frailties on and off the field were clearly visible. After having a tough start to the season, the Barcelona board sacked head-coach Ernesto Valverde despite severe backlash from star players, including the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Barcelona then appointed former Real Betis coach- Quique Setién to steady the ship and give a fresh start to the squad. But Barcelona ended up losing the league title to Real Madrid after the second half of the season was played behind closed doors. Quique Setién’s tenure came to an end just 5 months into his Barca tenure after Barcelona famously lost 8-2 at the hands of Bayern Munich.
The 8-2 defeat proved to be a major blot on Barcelona’s history after Lionel Messi publicly asked the Barcelona officials to let him leave the club in an interview with football outlet Goal. The video sparked huge controversy and completely exposed how the great Barcelona was being ruined by Bartomeu and his staff. Leo Messi’s message was clear and it lead to Bartomeu’s resignation as the Barcelona president.
The situation became even worse for the Catalans after the Covid pandemic, as Barcelona had their major source of revenue- stadium ticket sales taken away from them due to lockdowns in Spain.
Barcelona’s fall from Grace: Bartomeu- financial crisis, transfer failures, scandals and much more
After Bartomeu’s resignation- former Barca president Joan Laporta once again returned to the club as president in order to steady Barcelona’s ship. Despite his efforts, Lionel Messi had to leave Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain, ending a relationship that went back more than 20 years. It was because of LA LIGA’s wage cap rules, Barcelona couldn’t register Messi when his contract expired in 2021.
“The Argentina star holds all of the main records in FC Barcelona history,” is how the club’s own website puts it, and indeed some of his marks like his 91 goals in 2012 are world marks. But with Messi, of course, it is not just about quantity but a thrilling quality perhaps unmatched in football history. We look at the key numbers from his Barcelona spell and remember some of the magic moments.
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