There is no doubt that this weekend was one of the most striking news of the years we nurture in the sports field. Messi officially left the Spanish soccer team Barcelona after they did not reach an agreement in terms of his contract and that the Argentine star will become unpayable for the sports institution.
Around this news, the truth is that there is a great business that now has a concrete figure of what it will cost Barcelona to have let go of one of the most valuable players on and off the pitch today.
Since the end of last year, the financial situation of Barcelona was already reading complicated. The debt facing the squad is the problem.
According to the projections made by RAC 1, the blue team needed at that time to make a salary cut of 190 million euros before this November 5. This would represent 30 percent of the salary mass of the establishment, which in previous months would have already received a significant reduction.
The truth is that this move does not seem to have helped the team greatly. With a new administrative direction, until the end of last March, according to data provided by Bloomberg, it was estimated that the squad would have a debt of 673 million euros (792 million dollars). This figure currently exceeds one billion euros, which includes deferred payments from players during the pandemic.
This issue naturally has to do with a problem that was aggravated by the pandemic. According to the annual report of the sports institution, the health emergency resulted in a blow to the club’s economy of 130 million euros in its business.
With the departure of Messi, and considering how valuable his contract was and how much it would cost the club to keep the player, it is certain that salary passion will have a respite.
However, it is clear that the payroll will continue to represent 95 percent of Barcelona’s income, a figure that without Messi charges another reading if we consider that marketing income could be affected by up to 2 million euros without the Argentine “crack” in their ranks.
Until the beginning of this year, according to information provided by Forbes, Barcelona’s 10 had about 13 different sponsorship agreements, which translated into earnings of $ 35 million for the football star.
The truth is that these losses will only be part of the equation. Now from Brand Finance, they indicate that the departure of Messi could cost Barcelona about 137 million euros less in its brand valuation, which would mean a drop of 11 percent compared to the current valuation of the team that is estimated at 1,000 266 million euros.
This total figure would be built by 77 million euros less in terms of commercial income, the effects on the sale of shirts and other marketing products with 43 million euros as well as the income registered per match day and the results in the field of game, with a crash of 17 million euros.
This could aggravate the financial situation of the club that is currently suffering to emerge afloat after what the pandemic left it, in financial terms, added to a questionable management of resources.