Crisis club Barcelona announce massive £408m losses for 2020-21 season after spending record high £967m in expenses
CRISIS club Barcelona have announced staggering losses of £408MILLION for the 2020-21 season.
The LaLiga giants are a club in turmoil, struggling both on the pitch and off it.
Barca‘s financial woes have long been known, with Lionel Messi forced to leave the club – despite wanting to stay – after they were unable to afford his wages.
The club – believed to be over £1billion in debt – have asked a host of big-earning stars to take pay-cuts – with the likes of Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets accepting.
That allowed them to complete the free transfers of Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia and Memphis Depay after it was feared deals would collapse.
But the extent of the damage has been officially revealed by Barcelona chiefs – and it makes for horrendous reading.
Barca made losses of £408m after tax last season – in no small part thanks to spending a record-high £967m, with sky-high wages part of the problem.
The club also cited the loss match-day income as a key reason for their shortcomings.
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Barcelona had estimated they would rake in £704m in revenue last season – but only managed to scrape together £537m – 24 per cent under budget.
The Spanish giants claimed the Nou Camp was the ‘most-affected area’ – seeing an 84 per cent loss in revenue compared to the season before due to coronavirus.
Barcelona even saw a season-on-season decrease in TV revenue – down 14 per cent to just £240m.
They claim the ‘postponement of the 2019-20 LaLiga and Champions League meant income from television broadcasts of the matches played in July and August was transferred to the accounts for the 2020-21 season.’
Expenses also rose by 19 per cent – to a record high £967m – compared to 2019-20, with player wages a huge chunk of that.
Barcelona have since seen top-earner Messi – believed to be on around £1m per week – leave, with Antoine Griezmann’s £280,000-a-week salary also offloaded in the summer after he re-joined Atletico Madrid.
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