why FC Barcelona will be able to have fun in the midst of a financial crisis

Joshua Kimmich, Lionel Messi, Bernardo Silva, João Cancelo… The various names released in recent days in the Catalan press send a heavy message on paper. But inevitably, while the Spanish champion is in a difficult financial situation, we can ask ourselves a question: is it really realistic to imagine such players landing in Barcelona? At first glance, the answer is obvious: no. The Catalans are in a terrible money pit, and La Liga have even asked them to keep cutting spending. For the financial fair play of the Spanish championship, the team managed by Joan Laporta must save 200 million euros to be in a balanced situation. A hell of a lot, which forces the Barcelonans to take drastic measures, such as negotiating new salary cuts with some of the best paid players in the locker room in particular.

In the current state, the Culés cannot even register the new contracts – however not necessarily fabulous – of players like Gavi, Sergi Roberto, Ronald Araujo or Marcos Alonso. How, in this context, imagine them recruiting players with much higher salaries and for whom it will in some cases be necessary to pay a large transfer fee? This is a legitimate question, which has several answers. First of all, it should be clarified that the Catalans will not be able to sign all the players mentioned above, nor the others who have been released in the press and those who will be released by the market opening. Clearly, Barça cannot play Chelsea, whatever the events that will take place in the coming months.

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Barça will be able to recruit under certain conditions

But Xavi should be able to have new faces in the workforce. First of all, because there will be lots of sales. The Catalans should be able to get rid of players with a certain market value for handsome sums. We think of Ferran Torres or Raphinha, while it will be possible to make capital gains on elements who arrived free like Eric Garcia or Franck Kessié, or others who shine on loan like Abde. There are also various possible strategies, such as using loans with an option to buy or transfers payable in fairly comfortable installments. The possibility of selling assets – the famous levers of last summer – is also on the table. The Catalan club should also reduce some of the club’s daily costs. The closure of Barça TV, the club’s official channel, goes in this direction, and allows him to save 12 million euros. The other club teams, such as the women’s team, the basketball team or the handball team, may have to tighten their belts a little to allow the men’s football team to have more leeway.

The sinews of war is also to enter into the financial fair play criteria of La Liga, with which Barça works closely, having already presented several viability plans. It is important to point out that more than real liquidity problems, it is these wage bill control rules imposed by La Liga that are reducing the scope of the club at present. Barça is now subject to the 4/1 rule: that is to say, it can only reinvest a quarter of the money it generates. If he sells a player for 100 million euros tomorrow, he can only use 25 million euros on the transfer window, and the rest of the sum will, of course, be used to rebalance the accounts. On the other hand, if Barça were to go back to the 1/1 rule – this is Laporta’s objective – it would be much easier to reinvest in the transfer window. The Blaugranas could spend 100% of the sums collected (thus 100 M€ on a sale of 100 M€) and could thus hope to attract some big fish. It should also be noted that in the case of Lionel Messi, for example, the club intends to call on sponsors and spread the salary paid to the player over several years. But before thinking about seeing the Argentinian or Bernardo Silva on the Camp Nou meadow – or the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona since Barça will be moving for a season – Laporta and his men have their work cut out for them…