They remind me of the last govt in Britain or their present govt in Spain which almost went burst or is now about to go burst. Serves them right!! And yet they still want to buy Cesc! What share nonsense. Please Cesc be warned…..

http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2010/06/thepremier-league-where-is-it-all-going-wrong/

They are worse off as TV revenue is a much larger % of turnover for them. Top clubs in the EPL have TV as around 30-40% of revenue, it’s 32.5% for Arsenal. TV money was £73m from my figures, so if you remove that you quite clearly throw a spanner in the works. However TV revenue contributes 39% of Barca’s turnover, so they’d face a much bigger shortfall than we would.

This situation is more likely to befall Barca, as there are issues surrounding their TV companies. They could also face a fall in TV money (as I touch upon in this article) due to issues of competitive balance in their league (ie there is none). Oh, and they don’t turn much of a profit in this set of accounts I’ve looked at and make a big loss the following year, so they don’t have any flexibility either.

But players on four year contracts would demand their wages continue – so there would be a massive fire sale to other leagues.

Arsenal would do better than most for two reasons – their TV audience levels are always high worldwide, and they are not living in debt, so they could adjust more rapidly. It would be hard for all clubs, but Arsenal less than most.

As the selling club, we can demand whatever terms we like and Barcelona have to meet them, so if we demanded money up-front they wouldn’t have a choice unless they were to walk away completely. Such a demand may push the price down (as it would with commercial deals) though this too rests with us accepting such terms.

In short, if we tell Barca to piss off or pay £70m up-front, they either do so or lose out on the player. even next summer he has four years left on his contract… value only starts to fall after two really.

How much do BarceLOANus owe us for previous transfers?

If we sell Cesc I assume there is nothing to prevent us demanding Cash On Delivery?

Then Barca will have a severe shortfall of funds and will need another bridging loan to tidy up players salaries again.

And if “Black October” rears its ulgy head this year, with many Spanish banks go to the wall, and Barca approaches the bank again for another “bridging loan” in November/December 2010……..

Guess what is going to happen in Janary 2011?

I don’t believe however that this is the cause of their losses, the reason for that is much, much more simple: transfer spending. Barcelona have been consistently spending more on players than their operating profit, which for me is a level beyond which spending is risky unless substantial player sales occur too. They rely on credit to fund this, and hopefully this credit will dry up as the Spanish bank sector suffers.

Goonergerry: What always confuses me is why these clubs give their players performance bonuses that are greater than what the club earns through actually achieving the success. Naturally, a good cup run either domestically or in europe brings extra TV money and more matchday revenue, but forecast these revenues and ensure bonuses are always less than what they expect to make. This is exactly the same mistake Pompey made: the bonuses for the FA Cup success were far, far more than what the cup run ever made them.

It isn’t rocket science.

What we want is another very successful season for Barcelona- paying the maximum out in salaries and bonuses-at a time when there is a real squeeze on credit in Spain. Barcelona might get closer to the edge than they care to imagine. Somehow though we might not get it- the world cup may have taken too much out of their players.

It does raise the question about the price of success- with a team full of expensive players- can it be afforded? The temptation of many clubs as you have suggested is to try to achieve success at any price. At Arsenal we just have to be patient.

My feeling is that Barça’s financial losses have to be put in the context of the problems of the Spanish economy as a whole, since Spain, like many other developed countries around the world (US, UK, Australia, Eire) is suffering badly as the result of the recent collapse of the vast boom in property prices in the past decade, which had the knock-on effect of inflating prices for almost everything else.

As this article from today’s FT makes plain, the crisis has a long way yet to run:

Denial is also all too much in evidence with respect to the Spanish banks. The Spanish authorities keep up the pretence that their banking system is sound and they engage in shameless loan-loss forbearance to paper over the system’s difficulties.

This can only end in tears, and 20% unemployment and rising in Spain will undoubtedly have an impact on clubs’ ticket sales, sales of merchandise, and ultimately on ad revenues for TV stations.

Debt deflation all the way, baby. Not pretty, not clever.

Knowing Rossell and Laporta has a frosty relationship between them. Rossell certainly have the motive to demonize his foe and glorify himself.

well there ya go! now all those gunners fans that continually complain about not signing over priced ego players…thats what it does! Gunners are a sustainable club and good on them. in the current financial climate many many many people could take a leaf out of this book of financial management! a sustainable economy…imagine that!