What FC Barcelona will tell you is that their comfortable lead at the top of La Liga at the moment (nine points) indicates that they have recovered from their years in financial hell. That all the levers they’ve pulled (and the symbolism of Barca constantly talking about pulling their levers is hard to miss) has paid off and they’re back not just where they used to live, among the elite , but where they ruled and get first pick at the spread.
They’ll be shouting it louder these days, which actually indicates how much trouble they could get. Nowadays, a Spanish judge has agreed to investigate the club to, essentially, bribe referees. So everyone in Spain who has spent a decade or more wondering how Barca kept getting the call they needed, a lament of the entire proletariat against any footballing superpower, may soon get their answer.
It’s not that simple, and yet it doesn’t seem that far off. Let’s dig deeper. Spanish prosecutors have alleged corruption against Barca, and in particular their two former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, for payments the club made under their direction to a company owned by a man named Enriquez Negreira, who happened to be the vice-president of Spain. arbitration committee at the time. If it sounds fishy, it’s because it’s fishy as shit.
What they say
Barca and Negreira claim the payments were only for referee reports and how players were expected to act or play when certain referees were working their matches. Which looks like one of the most flimsy defenses of all time. Barca will say, and have said, that it’s not much different than getting scouting reports on an upcoming opponent. Except in this case, clubs don’t tend to pay the people who are employed and part of the hierarchy to run the club they are about to play. You wouldn’t see Brian Cashman asking the Rays’ assistant general manager for Rays roster reports, you wouldn’t think.
If Barca had just hired their own scouts to provide reports on referees and how they handled games, fine. That’s something else, and it doesn’t look like Barca or Negreira are trying to claim much else. And there’s not much you can do to go from just getting scouting reports to having those payments influence at least the referees who worked Barca games and those who didn’t. , or worse. Again, Negreira was vice-chairman of the reffing committee at the time.
And after?
What could happen to Barca is more unclear. La Liga has a statute of limitations for this stuff, and since payments stopped in 2018 (and therefore more than three years ago), the league said there was nothing they could do about it. However, the Spanish FA are closely monitoring how the legal process unfolds, although the FA are unlikely to step on the league’s toes with any form of punishment. All the Madristas who hope that every Barca title of the last 20 years will have to be canceled are probably pissing in the wind. UEFA is also on stand-by. Bartomeu and Rosell could just be punished individually, and that could be the extent of the punishment anyone associated with Barcelona could face. Former coaches or sources close to them, such as Pep Guardiola and Ernesto Valverde, said they didn’t know anything on these reports.
This part of UEFA is the one Barcelona really have to worry about. UEFA no longer has a time limit on this sort of thing (thank you Manchester City), and if UEFA were interested, they could cut off the Champions League money tap that Barca so desperately need to get out of the financial hell they’ve gotten themselves into. Barca can get $61m for winning La Liga, but they would only get $7m less for finishing second or around $15m less for finishing third. Their whole plan, with the levers, signatures and salutes, was based on a deep run in the Champions League. It hasn’t worked out this season (hilarious) but what we know of the club’s ‘planning’ is that they would be counting on a knockout run and deep in them next season which may pay off for a team tens of millions more dollars, or eeuros in this case. But we are still far from it since it must first go through the Spanish courts.
Gavi expelled by judge
This isn’t their only problem this week, because when Barcelona ignites the face, they never spare kerosene. The contract of one of their midfield stalwarts, Gavi, was ruled out by a judge this week as Barca simply don’t have space in their imposed spending limit to fit him in. Or, more specifically, they filed the paperwork. for registering one day late. Gavi can still finish this season in the squad as he is still under a youth contract after coming through the Barcelona system. But without a resolution, he can leave the club for free in the summer.
And he may have to, unless Barcelona get ultra-creative/shady again to bend, stretch and overturn their wage bill limits. La Liga president Javier Tebas says they still need to cut 200 million euros on their payroll for next season. Barca obviously think differently. It will be the same hullabaloo next summer as last summer.
It’s certainly never boring with the Catalans. But we’re past the point where it feels like it’s gone beyond something they can get out of. Whatever happened with the reference case, that stench is now attached to them, whether they like it or not. The name “FC Barcelona” still makes a lot of water flowing and remains a mecca for most players in the world. But how much longer will it last if they keep falling into their own septic tank?
If you want to see Sam convince himself that Liverpool can beat Madrid 4-0 in Madrid and then fire up, follow him on Twitter @Felsgate.