Madrid (AFP)

FC Barcelona bows to the pandemic: club with the highest income in the world but also one of the worst payrolls, the Catalan giant is caught in the throat between stopping competitions, tensions with its stars and sumptuous work for its stadium .

More than a billion euros: this is the record turnover advanced by Barça in its forecast budget for the 2019-2020 season. But the health crisis due to the pandemic of new coronavirus, which hit Spain (the second most bereaved country in the world behind Italy) and paralyzed the Liga on March 12, forced Barça to review its financial targets to drop and take drastic measures to avoid drowning.

"Obviously, we will not reach the 1.050 billion euros in revenue" forecast, admitted the president of FC Barcelona Josep Maria Bartomeu in an interview with the Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo, March 31.

In total, according to the Spanish press, Barça could lose more than 130 million euros if Liga and the Champions League do not come to an end: 48 M EUR of revenue generated by the Camp Nou (tickets, museum), and nearly EUR 84 million in TV rights not collected.

- Agreement with players -

Severe in revenue, the club having had the most income in the world last season according to the firm Deloitte had to find an agreement with professional players for a drop of 70% in their salaries until the resumption of competition. This will save him 14 million euros per month.

The agreement nevertheless provoked a communication hiccup which saw the stars of the locker room, Lionel Messi at the head, double the club by publishing a press release on the subject to defend their image ... and add 2% to the sum of their initiative .

"There is a very strong decrease in income, so we are trying to compensate for this with a reduction in the salaries of athletes and employees (...), a reduction in costs, and postponements of projects" like the work on the new Camp Nou, suspended, explained Bartomeu. The renovation of Camp Nou, at its launch, had been estimated at EUR 420 million, smoothed over several seasons.

The president of the multi-sports club clarified that by including the other professional sections (basketball, handball ...), also concerned by the agreement, the total of the saved salaries corresponded to 16 M EUR per month.

- LaLiga pushes for partial unemployment -

For the rest of the employees, the Barça management has implemented a partial unemployment plan (ERTE), accepted on Sunday by La Liga. But most employees will still receive their entire salary, thanks to the gesture of professional players.

"The direction taken by the clubs which request ERTE and which find agreements with the players will assure us that our industry suffers a little less in this health crisis", responded a source within LaLiga, who hopes that, in the long term , 90% of clubs in the first two Spanish divisions will announce plans for partial unemployment.

Barça's great rival, Real Madrid has yet to announce anything. Financially, the Merengue club seems to be doing better: it has completed its last exercises in the green and has accumulated more than 300 million euros in profits since 2009 according to the specialized press, thanks to a policy of wage moderation carried out for several seasons.

However, on the surface, Barça is not worried: "We are the richest club in the world. We have schools, a museum ... So yes, this suspension affects us more than others, but we will also recover more quickly, "assured President Bartomeu in an interview with Sport.

© 2020 AFP