The failed project of Barça basketball: "The wage bill will be cut with an effort proportional to that of football"

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It was not a day for the president of Barcelona,

, to be carried away by demons.

He chose his destination, Cologne, well and witnessed how his handball team won the European Cup.

The bad news came from the WiZink Center, where the basketball section consummated its collapse in this final stretch of the course.

A disappointment that at the club, however, was beginning to show since the fall in the semifinals of the Euroleague against Real Madrid, the same executioner as in the ACB.

They have been working in the offices of Barcelona on the reformulation of the team for weeks, taking for good the explanation offered by

in internal circles regarding the poor tactical and emotional fit of some players in their schemes.

And the Barça leaders, who maintain their confidence in the Lithuanian coach, have convinced themselves that there are aspects of the project that have been unsuccessful, with which they will once again seek a twist in the script.

Or, as Laporta said in his election campaign: "Losing will have consequences."

The budget of the Barcelona basketball section for this season has been 42 million euros.

Sources from the Barça club assume that these figures will have to be reduced next season due to the economic difficulties of an entity clinging to the "levers" of

.

Although the leaders of Barça assure that they have not proposed a specific percentage as an objective in the budget reduction, they do admit that the sports wage bill for basketball - 34.8 million euros, which amounts to 36.08 adding all the expenses staff - will have to be cut.

"And we will do it with an effort equivalent and proportional to what is intended in football," they state from the club's leadership.

In the football first team, the Laporta board has proposed that spending on salaries be reduced by 160 million euros, from the current 560 million to 400.

Mirotic, no proposal

There are especially delicate cases.

Both Jasikevicius and the team's franchise player,

(some sources estimate his salary at just over five million euros net), will be some of the targets of the executives to review their payroll.

A deferment of payments will not be proposed, as Barcelona did when it renewed Mirotic until 2025. In any case, from the Montenegrin basketball player's environment they assure that the entity has not sent him any proposal.

If the leaders of Barcelona fail to convince those involved they will not go to war, but they will choose to squeeze the budget by releasing ballast in the booth.

The American

, who refused to renew the contract that ends on June 30, is waiting to play in Milan.

His replacement is an old aspiration: the

32-year-old Czech

, who will leave Fenerbahçe.

, sentenced to play

in the series against Real Madrid to face

, is looking for a destination in the ACB now that his contract ends.

Taking his place would be

, a 23-year-old German power forward of Brazilian origin who plays for Alba Berlin, the Bundesliga champion.

Two other players who conclude their link are

, forward who has disappointed, and the Australian

, discarded in the first two games of the series against Madrid.

The permanence of a specialist like

(contract until 2023) and the captain,

(2024), is yet to be decided.

Where Barcelona hope to cut back is with

, the team's second-highest paid player.

The club has spent weeks assessing the departure of the Greek-American point guard, who still has one more year left on his contract and with whom a complex economic agreement would have to be reached.

In his place should enter the former Barça player

, who would leave the NBA to receive a slightly lower chip than Calathes.

In any case, with this season's financial year yet to close and asset sales still to be signed, a tense calm prevails.

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• Joan Laporta

• real Madrid

• Nikola Mirotic