As the authoritative media in Catalonia, TV3 has extremely high accuracy in reporting the news of Barcelona. But today, when they exposed the salary breakdowns of Barca players over the past few seasons, it caused an uproar.
From Messi's annual salary of 135 million euros last season to Pique's 28 million annual income in the team this season, many people have been surprised. So whether these numbers are true or not, and which ones are completely certain?
The salary of 3 people is basically determined
Messi, Griezmann and Dembele
TV3 as the authoritative media of Catalonia, their numbers are indeed worthy of scrutiny. First of all, the salaries of 3 players in Barca's team last season can be confirmed, and the numbers of these 3 players in TV3 reports are no different from the facts.
The first is Messi's pre-tax salary of 135 million euros last season, which was known to the world at the beginning of last year because Messi's original contract was exposed. In 2017, Messi signed Barca the largest contract in football history for a total of 550 million euros for four years, with an average annual salary of 138 million euros before tax.
After the news came to light, Messi asked the then interim board of directors to give an account and seek legal means to pursue those responsible for the leak. It can be seen that the contract, which is worth 555237619 euros, has a signing fee of 115 million euros in addition to the annual salary, as well as a loyalty bonus of up to 78 million euros.
Another player who can confirm the salary is Griezmann, after leaving the team on September 1 last year, the Barca mouthpiece Daily Sport newspaper also published the original of Griezmann's contract: the amount of salary he actually received last season was 21 million euros before tax.
Griezmann's first year at Barca was a starting salary of €17 million before taxes, followed by an increase of €1 million per year. Even counting the first year's signature bonus and all triggered bonuses, Griezmann's annual income at Barca in the past two years was 25.5 million euros and 21 million euros respectively.
It is worth mentioning that Griezmann's contract involves a large number of bonus clauses. Including the Golden Boot, Triple Crown and Ballon d'Or, the theory can reach up to 39 million euros before tax (but it can't be triggered, if the trigger is also earned by Barca).
Another player who can hammer the annual salary is Dembele, who shortly after his transfer to Barca, was exposed by spiegel and Football Decryption hackers, and Dembele's annual salary at Barca was 12 million euros before tax.
Like Griezmann, Dembele has a potential prize of 6.7 million euros and a treble prize of 3.3 million euros. However, due to injuries and other effects, he never achieved it.
Barca's 3 captain's annual salary suddenly doubled
Is Pique 28 million real
The TV3 breaking news data is roughly consistent with the previous multi-party news. The biggest slot point is the current Barca's several La Masia Meritorious Captains. Their annual salary data has different degrees of "surge", and even some people have doubled the phenomenon.
In previous reports, Pique's annual salary was basically the same as Umtiti's pre-tax 12 million, but this time TV3 wrote that Pique's pre-tax salary was 28 million euros a year!
To this end, TV3 specifically explained that Pique received a salary cut last season, but the reduction was fully compensated in the future through loyalty bonuses. He received a second pay cut this season and was subsequently awarded a new loyalty bonus.
In addition, Lamacia feats such as Busquets and Alba have received loyalty bonuses when they have renewed their contracts in the past, seeing the treatment of several Dream Three Meritorious Artists when they left the team or renewed their contracts.
Earnings and budgets don't lie
"Hidden" loyalty bonuses surfaced
As can be seen from Barca's earnings data for the 2019-20 season, the total salary expenditure of players in the red and blue first teams is 391 million euros. However, after adding the expenditure of the basketball team and the B team, the total amount came to 512 million euros, which is also the reason why Barça was exposed by many media as "salary explosions".
However, it should be noted that the expenditure of the basketball team and the B team is not so large, and the important reason for the total surge is from a "other personnel expenditure" section, which is as high as 50.84 million euros. This includes the "loyalty bonus" of Messi and others.
As can be seen from Barca's financial budget data this season, the total salary of the team's first team has been reduced from 391 million euros to 290 million euros after the departure of Messi and Griezmann (because the salary expenditure of the new arrivals Depay, Aguero and Garcia is even higher than that of the departing Griezmann, Trincon and Moriba).
However, in addition to the first-team salaries, Barca still has another personnel expenditure of 34.57 million euros (mainly the "loyalty bonus" of several captains), bringing the total salary cost to 369 million euros (including basketball teams, B teams, handball teams, hockey teams, etc.).
Simply put, the annual salaries of Busquets, Pique, and Alba have almost doubled in TV3 reports, which is to increase the previously unknown "loyalty bonus" part back to the salary, and the previous "nominal salary cut" part back to the total amount received later, causing the data to soar.
It is interesting to note that when Barca registers new signings, there is actually no need to talk to the captains about nominal salary cuts and loyalty bonus compensation, after all, according to the La Liga salary cap law, the bonus that must be triggered still needs to be counted. However, through a series of propaganda means, who can't say that they cooperated with each other and "played" Messi?
Conclusion
As the merits of the Dream Trinity generation, coupled with the signature of youth training, Messi, Busquets, Pique and others represent an era for Barca. They didn't spend the club transfer fee (Pique had a returning transfer fee but the amount was low), so Barca rewarded them with loyalty bonuses.
This is not a problem during the economic upswing period, and Barca's financial resources are sufficient to support it. After the outbreak of the epidemic and the economic downturn, this became a problem. Barca gave up on the renewal of Lionel Messi last summer, and how will the Red and Blues "change" the pay scale this summer to prepare for the introduction of Haaland?