After an eventful summer of new signings, being relegated to the Europa League was not in the plans for Barcelona. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that the drama at Camp Nou is not over yet. dermotmcorrigan on Barcelona's financial mess:
Milan, as it dawned on the home fans that their club were almost certainly eliminated from the 2022-23 Champions League already, with two group games still to play.As Inter’s players, coaches and fans celebrated in their small pockets, most of the 92,302 crowd were stunned and exhausted — as were the Barcelona team, their coach Xavi Hernandez, and the club’s president Joan Laporta.Plzen 4-0 to knock Barcelona out of the Champions League at the group stage for the second season in a row.
The delegates present on behalf of almost 150,000 “socio” members definitely seemed to agree, as all the votes put forward by the board were carried with huge majorities. There were also votes on the details of the Sixth Street TV rights arrangement, and the creation of a new company, Barca Digital Entertainment, which would manage the club’s crypto and NFT plans, along with partners Socios.com and Jaume Roures’ Orpheus Media. Both carried easily, with the backing of around 90 per cent of delegate socios.
That was a reminder that the Catalans are still living beyond their means and continuing to pay off the mistakes of the past.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.
But still, nobody at this month’s AGM was seriously considering they could end up back in the Europa League after Christmas.