How FC Barcelona went from soccer supremacy to financial mess

Just three years ago, FC Barcelona was at the top of its game, chalking up victory after victory and becoming the first soccer club to surpass $1 billion in revenue.

Today, it's estimated the club faces over $1.7 billion dollars (€1.1 billion) in debt and poor performances on the pitch while several former staff, including its former president Josep Bartomeu, have been arrested for allegedly running a smear campaign against their rivals.

Bartomeu has since been released, pending charges.

Catalan Police raided the club's home stadium on Monday in a search and seize operation as part of an investigation into allegations that club officials hired and overpaid public relations company, I3 Ventures, to smear people critical of the club and its leadership.  

Sports reporter Sandra Herrera spoke with Day 6 host Brent Bambury about how FC Barcelona ended up in dire straits, and whether or not they can recover from the so-called "Barcagate." 

Here is part of that conversation. 

Here's one of the biggest sports teams in the world, the first soccer team to surpass a billion dollars in revenue. Now they are more than one billion in debt. How did this happen? Where did all of this start? 

I think the easiest finger to point at is going to be probably all the big contracts with the players that they've currently got right now. A lot of that stems back to their former president Josep Bartomeu, who was really responsible for adding on and seeking out all of these big contracts to bring on. He became president back in 2014 and there was a great run of success within those first couple of years.

Then there was a real transition as players started to seek different contracts with the exit of somebody like Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain [FC]. That sort of put the spotlight on big money contracts and Barcelona probably felt the need to compete with that in light of losing a player like that. 

On Monday, Josep Bartomeu was amongst those arrested by Catalan Police for what they're calling the Barcagate scandal. He's been released since then, but this scandal looks like it's been a very, very difficult thing for the club. What is the scandal and what is his role in it? 

Josep and a number of others were arrested and raided to carry out an additional investigation around something called I3 Ventures. It's essentially a company that was hired by various board members to carry out what's being considered a smear campaign, and to try to persuade a negative opinion of Barcelona's political opponents and ultimately some of its fan favourite players — somebody like a Messi or a Piqué.

It was initially contracted for a million dollars, but further investigation is starting to reveal that it was potentially smaller payments that were paid out as a fee just because any type of fee over the €200,000 [approximately $309,000 Cdn.] mark requires a type of higher approval. 

They paid a lot of money to this company to smear their own people, including Lionel Messi. Messi's contract was leaked to the press in January, and if he meets every clause in that contract, apparently he's getting paid [$852.9 million Cdn] in total. What has all of this, along with the smear campaign, done to Messi's relationship with FC Barcelona?

There's been a lot of bad blood between the two sides, dating as far back as the previous transfer window. He was expressing his unhappiness, sending the effects to the club, saying this is enough. There's been a lot of bad things brewing between them and I think with the leak of the contract, that just contributes to that.

In light of showing the number for somebody like Lionel Messi, it's a huge number. It's an eye-bulging number. But for a club like Barcelona, who is a club that typically, pre-pandemic, was reaching billion dollar revenue, it might have felt irresponsible to have maybe given as large of a contract as that. But it was doable.

In light of everything going on, it's still not going to go away, especially with the current Barcagate bringing all of these things into light. It's just going to add to more animosity between the two parties of Messi and the club. 

Now there's the pandemic and that giant stadium is sitting empty. They're missing out on tens of thousands of fans each game and they're holding this debt, which is short term and onerous. If there had not been the pandemic, would they still be in this amount of trouble? 

There would have been a certain level of urgency in terms of figuring out how to balance their books. But I think being one of the very rare clubs in the world that is able to achieve what they have achieved financially in terms of revenue, is what has set Barcelona a part from previous clubs — but it's also something that has put them in the hole that they're in.

They [went] from being a club that's very successful and, in that success, have earned a lot of revenue. But they also became a club that was a target that if they go in to negotiate, they're known immediately that they have the money to contend. 

Is it possible that FC Barcelona could actually go bankrupt? 

There have been a lot of clubs, unfortunately, that have had to go through some similar things. Things with revenue, and the concept of having to seize operations or fold or go through bankruptcy, is not something that is uncommon.

But I just feel like this is a club that just has too high of a profile, has a standing legacy that's just too great. Globally, there will be various governing boards that will probably try to ensure Barcelona's status in some way, shape or form. I wouldn't be shocked by that at all. 

So tomorrow there's this election to choose the next president. FC Barcelona will be making that decision among their members and then they'll have a new president. But why would anyone want that job right now? 

It's almost like high risk, high reward. So if whoever gets elected into this position, yeah, it's going to be rough. It's going to be moments of fear.

But for the success, if any, comes from it under a new era of presidency, that's going to be huge.

Written by Kristy Kilburn. Produced by Mouhamad Rachini. Q&A edited for length and clarity.

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