With £1billion debt, Barcelona on verge of bankruptcy

Barcelona’s crippling financial crisis has been laid bare following the impact of the coronavirus.

Barcelona are on the verge of bankruptcy after racking up debts close to £1billion, according to reports.

The reports also claimed Barcelona still need to to pay back around £375million or risk going into insolvency.

At the end of last season, accounts showed the Barcelona had lost a whopping £88m with the club forced to play in an empty Nou Camp.

Despite slashing players’ wages by 70 per cent during the pandemic, the Barcelona football club also disclosed debts of £443m.

And a report in La Vanguardia now claims that figure does not include a deficit that totals around £360m taking the total to just over £800m (€900m).

On top of that, Barcelona owe a staggering £173million to clubs over player transfers in the long-term – taking the total just shy of an eye-watering £1bn.

According to Marca, that includes two payments to Liverpool for Philippe Coutinho.

The Catalan giants signed the Brazilian playmaker for £142m in January 2018 but still owe £25.84m in the short-term and £35.4m in the long-term.

It’s a similar story with Ajax and Frenkie De Jong with Barcelona still owing the Dutch side £42.47m.

One expenditure burning a huge financial hole in the club is the staggering wage bill.

Barcelona have the highest wage bill in world football that tops £355m.

And the club are in further turmoil after it was revealed by El Partidazo de COPE that they have been unable to afford to pay the players their December wages.