La Liga feature: FC Barcelona on the verge of bankruptcy

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Chennai, February 1: Things do not look that good for Barcelona outside the football pitch as their financial situation is going from bad to worse.

The Catalan giants reportedly owe around 1.2 billion euros in debt to different parties.

Forget signing Neymar, the club could not even afford to sign Eric Garcia, who has been linked with them for quite some time now.

A recent report in Spanish daily El Mundo, puts Barcelona’s total debt at 1,173 million euros. To break this up, 730 million euros are owed in short term.

Another 266 million euros to banks are ought to be paid by June 30. The club also owes another 196 million euros to other clubs for the transfer of various players that includes 40 million euros for Philippe Coutinho to Liverpool, 48 million euros for Frenkie De Jong to Ajax.

Another El Mundo report that has caught the eye is that of Lionel Messi’s wages. The report revealed that the Argentinian’s salary totals the remarkable sum of €555, 237,619 across four years, inclusive of variables.

To understand these numbers better, Messi earns a reported 138 million euros per season fixed + variables, 115,225,000 million euros as 'renewal fee' just for accepting the contract and another 77,929,955 million euros as loyalty bonus. These numbers sound mad.

Speaking of Barcelona’s current financial condition, La Liga President, Javier Tebas defended the club stating that the Catalans will pull through from this hard situation.

"FC Barcelona have their method of payment. They don't pay monthly; they pay in January and June. Clubs like Real, Atletico and Barca have done pretty much what every big company around the world has done. They sent their staff back when there was no action, but now I guess most clubs have got their 100 per cent workforce back.”, he said.

Barcelona’s Presidential elections are set to take place on March 7, to fill the void left by Josep Bartomeu, who left his post earlier this season after backlash from the players and the fans over his treatment of Messi and the management of the club in general.