Barca Returns to the Cruyff (Dutch) Model

[Yankee_Jack]

With the return of Koeman as head coach and apparently assistants being brought in from Ajax, Barca wittingly or otherwise is returning to the legacy of Cruyff and the Dutch model.

Koeman was previously at Barca as a player under Cruyff and then as assistant coach under Van Gaal.

It will be interesting to see what player power and internal politics make of this. And, more importantly what happens to the geriatrics and the younger players that don't get the religion.

 

[ivoralljack]

A lot of the old guard are rumoured to be moving on including 'Biscuits' amongst others.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

The following letter was sent out to members yesterday .... the current board are soldiering on until next March.

Dear member,

The FC Barcelona Board of Directors, assuming its responsibility for the sporting situation that the club are experiencing, have agreed that the date for the next presidential elections will be the first matchday past March 15, 2021. The formal announcement of the elections will take place at the end of January 2021, in accordance with the provisions of article 43.1 of the Club Statutes. After considering all options, the Board consider this to be the most viable date for the aforementioned elections. The Board understand that an immediate call for elections is not feasible, given that the league season will begin on the weekend of September 12, 2020, and the situation arising from the COVID-19 crisis -both economically and socially. Consequently, the club will continue to implement the plan to reverse the sporting and economic situation, based on profound changes to the first team, plus a redefined budget to deal with the new situation caused by COVID-19, before the end of the current mandate. The holding of the elections from March 15 next year implies that the Board of Directors assume full responsibility regarding the 2020-2021 financial year. Likewise, the holding of elections on the first available date within the deadline set due to the end of the mandate, in accordance with the provisions of the Club Statutes, will allow an orderly transition to the winning candidacy, which will have a sufficient time frame in which to plan for the 2021-2022 season.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

It’s going to get ugly, financially really fugly, and the board are required to post a performance bond of a significant percentage of revenue .... around 10% if I’m not mistaken. Last season the club made a Covid related loss of over €200m and has forecast a €320m loss for the coming season. How they reconcile this with the board’s fiduciary handcuff is not clear.

player payroll is going to have to be cut .... and we all know who the big earner(s) are.

Now it is reported this morning that EPL are not going to be allowed to live stream their matches that Sky doesn’t broadcast live. Meaning there’s no virtual season ticket. A little hit to a club like West Ham or Everton, where match day revenue is a small percentage of their total, but a massive hit to clubs with big capacity grounds and therefore a large audience into which they could sell virtual season tickets. There’s a war brewing over this. Push is going to come to shove over this and media revenue claw back by Sky if they don’t get their way, financial losses to clubs either way it appears. Clubs are on a possible lose-lose.

 

[Yankee_Jack]

On the bigger picture, projected losses like Barca’s are going to be widespread if smaller in scale. Normally a club would sell players to make up the shortfall, but with systemic losses, the transfer market will freeze through a lack of liquidity. Player bargaining power will be chopped to zero. The struggle is going to be between clubs and plays/players’ unions on existing contracts, their performance, and give backs to remain employed.

The fugly elephant in the room is the total size of the EPL’s off the books guarantee to banks that finance the factoring of player sales. There have to be countless hundreds of millions of pounds of such risk out there, and it only takes one club to default and the network of risk will bring the whole house of cards tumbling down. Factoring of transfer fees is a game of musical chairs that can go to shit quickly if the music stutters never mind stops.