Barcelona teeters on the edge of financial collapse. How? Why? What? Err?
FC Barcelona, who have just signed David Villa, is attempting to negotiate a 150 million- euro bank loan after falling behind with salary payments to players, (according to Bloomberg, one of the few sources of news that I would generally trust).
They hope to secure the loan in a few days, the new Barcelona President S Rosell has said.
“We have to finance our short-term obligations such as wages,” he said, before adding the team also plans to sell defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy back to Shakhtar Donetsk for 15 million euros, 10 million less than it paid for him in August 2009.
Now that doesn’t quite seem to me to be good, well-planned, and well-thought-through transaction. A bit like the Hleb deal in fact.
“Club members can relax,” Rosell added. “The club isn’t bankrupt.”
So, the question is, is that true? And if so, what the hell is going on?