Barcelona. Is. Screwed. (Update 1-18-24 on page 3)

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The last few weeks had brought back-to-back Champions League group defeats to Bayern Munich and Inter, but Barcelona had told themselves that they had been unlucky. On Wednesday, they could turn things back in their favour.

Ninety minutes of huge excitement and chaos later, it became clear Laporta’s plan to mortgage the club’s future to become instantly competitive had not worked.

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Laporta said that “together we have saved Barca”, reminding everyone of how the club had been almost bankrupt when he replaced Josep Maria Bartomeu as president in March of last year.

He explained how using various financial levers to borrow from projected future earnings would create a “virtuous circle”, in which the club will be boosted to success on and off the pitch and a winning team will grow its revenues so much that paying off the loans will not be difficult.

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A more realistic summation of Barcelona’s finances came when the club’s financial vice-president Eduard Romeu admitted last week that “without the income from the ‘levers’, last year we would have lost €106million, and this year (the loss would be) €210million”.

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Most obviously, their squad still costs way more than it should. In 2021-22, the total spent on salaries and amortised transfer fees was €518million but the budget confirms that, in 2022-23, it is up by 27 per cent to €656million after the signings of Lewandowski, Raphinha and five more new players in the summer.

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Romeu suggested last week that it will be 2024-25 before the club’s situation is “normalised.

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