What Messi was willing to pay for is irrelevant, they are €200m over the cap and are nowhere near getting close to register players. They are here because of years of mismanagement, €1.2bn in debt (mostly shortish term), €180m of player amortization a year and wages at 80% of turnover pre-covid (for comparison most other big teams were 60% or lower) which is now up to a catastrophic 110%. They clung on to the ESL in a desperate attempt to avoid the consequences of the mess they have got themselves in to.
Realistically they will have to take two or three years of pain, by which time they will have shed some contracts (either through transfer and expiry) and income will come back up although probably not to previous levels but good enough to start strengthening. I don't see them getting relegated anytime soon, and bankruptcy is unlikley as someone (government or private) will step in to prevent it. Alternatively they might team up with Real Madrid to collectively spit the dummy about ESL, the CVC Liga buyout, salary cap and everything else and try the nuclear "quit liga" option to get them to abolish the salary cap rules. Ironically there were no complaints from Barcelona when the salary rules meant they were able to outspend their rivals.
__________________
IG: @goldenballrookies
|