The departure of six-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi from Barcelona has confirmed what many fans have feared for years - star player wages are now so stratospheric that they risk bankrupting even the grandest clubs.
The charts below show some of the mind-boggling numbers involved in the world's richest leagues, where the financial strains are most acute, and how COVID-19 has compounded the problems.Barcelona President Joan Laporta said the club was forced to let Messi leave because his wage demands would have jeopardised its future.He estimated the Argentine's new contract would have meant the club was paying out more on wages than it earns - 110% of its revenues to be exact.
Olympique Lyon have seen the biggest individual rise over that period at 193%. Tottenham Hotspur have jumped 158% from being worth 800 million euros to just over 2 billion, while Manchester United and Barcelona have seen 15% and 16% gains to around 3.3 billion and 3.2 billion euros.Europe's top 20 clubs generated 8.2 billion euros in revenue in the 2019/20 season, according to Deloitte's annual football money league report.That was down from 9.
In a sub-plot to the Messi saga, both Barcelona and Madrid have been incensed by a proposed 2.7-billion-euro commercial rights deal between La Liga and private equity firm CVC. A consortium including the firm failed with a similar bid in Italy earlier in the year.Plenty of clubs now have significant debts due to the cost of buying players and building or improving stadiums.
Others argue that those figures do not show the full picture, as some super-wealthy club owners provide interest-free "soft loans" that are not always counted.
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