FC Barcelona auctions off Lionel Messi’s locker due to financial problems

Despite being a billion francs in debt, FC Barcelona restored its stadium, shook up the transfer market and repeatedly found loopholes to circumvent financial fair play.

Simon Häring / ch media

For a moment it looked as if FC Barcelona had once again outdone itself when it came to wasting money. The league and association refused to register Dani Olmo, who only returned to Spain from Leipzig in the summer of 2024. There is a risk of a free transfer.

Iberian media calculate that a quarter of a billion francs was burned: 55 million in transfer fees, 48 ​​million in wages until 2030, which Olmo apparently had to pay out in the event of the contract being terminated, and 60 million in market value, which would have had to be written off immediately.

And then another 100 million for VIP seats in the Camp Nou, which are said to have been sold to the Arab region for half of the actual value (200 million). The bottom line is around 250 million francs.

And although the debt is already said to amount to around a billion francs, FC Barcelona, ​​which is organized as a “non-profit association”, is currently renovating its stadium for 900 million francs.

With tricks and dishes to success

The venue is now called “Spotify Camp Nou”. In 2022, the streaming service secured the naming rights for the club, which once played without a shirt sponsor, for 300 million francs because it sees itself as the national team of Catalonia and claims to be “Més que un club”, also “more than a club”. From an economic point of view, this FC Barcelona is one thing above all: a seriously ill patient who is lying in intensive care trying to sell his organs and losing his dignity.

Next to it the courts are involved and tried everything to undermine financial fair play. This once meant that the contract with club icon Lionel Messi could not be extended. In the case of Dani Olmo, initially with success: in the middle of the week, FC Barcelona obtained one from the national sports council CSD provisional permission to play for Olmo and his teammate Pau Víctor. The damage is thus averted.

Competition expresses harsh criticism

To the annoyance of the competition. Atlético Madrid wrote: “This government intervention sets a very dangerous precedent.” It opens the door to circumventing the rules and repeating the serious mistakes of the past. UD Las Palmas called it a “serious threat to the integrity of the competition.” And La Liga president Javier Tebas also raged and called the situation a “tragicomedy”.

And Barcelona? Continues to sell out his story. In the middle of the week it became known how President Joan Laporta wants to make money: by auctioning all kinds of memorabilia, which is of course reinterpreted as an action that benefits the supporters. The most valuable item in the sale, which is scheduled to take place between January 23rd and February 13th, is Lionel Messi’s locker. Starting price? 350,000 US dollars.

President Laporta under fire

This is just the continuation of a strategy that has been pursued for a long time. In the past, stadium seats, pieces of grass, goal nets and other paraphernalia from the Camp Nou have also been auctioned off.

Things that find a buyer, but also cause criticism. Several opponents have formed and are demanding that President Laporta either resign or ask for a vote of confidence. The 62-year-old’s reputation also made it clear that he wanted to found a European “Super League” in 2021 with eleven other heavyweights in club football. Apart from arch-rival Real Madrid, Barcelona is now the only club that continues to officially pursue this goal.

It should be clear why: to keep the seriously ill patient alive with fresh money. It’s quite possible that Lionel Messi’s locker will soon become the property of a super-rich person who will install it as a bar on his yacht or place it in the hobby room to show off. Like FC Barcelona with players like Dani Olmo, who they actually can’t afford.