Spanish giants Barcelona have been performing swimmingly this season, winning five of their six games to emerge as the frontrunners in the La Liga race. They have one of the best squads in the division, but maintaining the roster is getting tougher by the hour.
Barcelona’s financial troubles are common knowledge. They have been making institution-wide cuts in order to bring their expenses down, but are far from reaching their financial goals. As per La Liga’s latest reports, Barca are well over their salary limit and might need to make more aggressive cuts to reduce their footprint.
Barcelona Have Made Notable Cuts Under Joan Laporta
Since returning as the president of the club two and a half years ago, Joan Laporta has taken some big steps to reduce Barcelona’s expenses, some of which have been quite controversial. They recently decided to stop the luncheon service at La Masia. The service used to allow the youth players to have lunch at the club after completing their morning training session. The club justified the cut saying that most players preferred to head home after training, making the lunch catering an unnecessary expenditure.
The Catalans have also discontinued the taxi service for youth players. The club employed taxis to pick up and drop off players who lived far away from the training facilities but within the Barcelona metropolitan area. Following the cut, the youth team players will have to make their own arrangements.
Now, the club have gone a step further by reportedly deciding to skip the Under-17 FIFA World Cup.
No Barca Scout At Under-17 FIFA World Cup
According to Spanish outlet Sport, Barcelona will not be sending scouts to the Under-17 FIFA World Cup that will be held in Indonesia between November 10 and December 2. Generally, all the top European clubs send scouts to such tournaments to identify potential world-beaters. The fact that Barca are skimping on such an important thing has raised a lot of eyebrows.
Barca scouts will certainly be monitoring players via their television sets. However, TV replays are no match for the insightful analysis a scout can come up with after watching a player at his best and worst over the course of a match.
This report comes amid claims that Barcelona’s Board of Directors have not yet contributed to the ongoing financial cuts. They are reportedly still living life as they were before the financial turmoil and are still using the company cards for their needs.
