Analysis: Inside The Fallen Barcelona’s Empire -By Ahmad Shereefdeen

The boat is no longer steady and it’s about to sink with everything it carries. Historical debacles, ridicule, and humiliation tied with Barcelona lately show that the landlords of Camp Nou are now in dark days. The glitter is no longer a gold for Laporte and his men. Even the club’s loyalists are not spared either in this mud of mockery in football arguments these days. 

No doubt the club is one of the heavyweight clubs in world football. Barcelona have domestically recorded seventy-five (75) trophies —Twenty-six (26) La Liga titles, thirty-one (31) Copa Del Rey, thirteen (13) SuperCopa De Espana, three (3 )Copa Eva Duarvte, and two( 2 )Copa De La Liga titles. 

At the international level, the Spanish giants have won 20 twenty titles —five (5) UEFA Champions League titles, four (4) UEFA Cup Winners Cup, a joint-record five(5) UEFA Super Cups, three (3) Inter-cities Fair Cups, and Three (3) FIFA Club World Cups. 

The Golden Era 

According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics Club World Ranking, Barcelona was ranked first in 1997, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015 football campaigns. 
The club has a global fanbase and one of the largest following social media teams in the world. Along with Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao. And more interestingly, the team still hold the glory of never being relegated before from La Liga to a lower division. 

In 2009, Barcelona became the first Spanish club to win the continental treble. They lifted the La Liga title, Copa Del Rey, and the UEFA Champions League. The Club also became the first team at the Spanish side to clinch six out of six competitions in a single year. 

Similarly, the Catalan giant, in 2011, became European champions again and won five trophies. Barcelona recorded fourteen (14) trophies in just four years under the nose of Pep Guardiola.

Relishing their golden era, with inarguably of the best trio frontline ever produced in the game of soccer(Messi , Neymar, and Suarez), the Blaugranas recorded another treble in 2015. 

When Things Started Falling Apart 

From the 2015/2016 football season, the glory of the club has been suffering a heavy knock.

Though, domestically, it could be said the club is somewhat competing. But at the continental level, their dream of lifting the UEFA cup again has been dashed many times shamefully.  Their way of bowing out of the knock-out stages in recent years could be too depressing for their fans to behold. 

Of course, it is not as if not winning UCL since 2015, Barca has committed a great felony. No. It is indeed a normal thing. Other big European clubs do bow out from the UCL as well. But Barcelona’s disqualification has always been accompanied by either humiliation or shell-shock. The moment always seems unbearable for fans of such a big club to watch their mighty team being outplayed and beaten with no mercy in such critical times. 

Miracle Turnaround: Stadio Olimpico Defeat 

The  Blaugranas staged a commanding display at the first-leg tie of the 2017/2018 Champions league quarter-finals against As Roma.  They beat the Serie A club 4-1 at Camp Nou. The Spanish side capitalised on their moments of fortune during the first-leg encounter. 

Own goals from Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Monalas put Barcelona in the lead. Gerard Pique added the third goal before Dzeko pulled one in the 80th minute. Luiz Suarez wrapped up the scoring to give Enersto Valverde’s men a comfortable 4-1 victory in the first-leg. 

Barca fans were already sensing a spot in the semi-final as they travelled to Stadio Olimpico after six days. In the pre-match conference, Roma’s coach,  Eusebio Di Francessco, said “we need to produce a miracle to turn this tie around.” 

And yes, the miracle did happen. The Serie A club miraculously overturned the 4-1 deficit and subjected the Spanish champions to their third consecutive UCL quarter-final knock-out.

Francessco’s side took the lead in the 6th minute through Dzeko and De Rossi added the second from the penalty spot. Kostas Monalas scored the decider with a header at the 82nd minute to give the Giallorossi an unanswered 3-0 win.  For the first since 1984, the Italian side was through to the semi-final with away goal rule after staging a sensational comeback at the Stadio Olimpico. 

“They ran a lot of risks and we were unable to overcome their pressure. It’s painful. It’s painful for the fans. ” Enersto Valverde, Barca’s coach, said after the match. 

Anfield Debacle

Unless you want to be insincere, no one could strongly contend the fact that Barcelona would not play in the 2018/2019 Champions League final. “We are already in the final,” many of their fans chanted; after defeating Liverpool 3-0 in their first-leg semi-final clash at the Camp Nou. 

They had their one foot in the final. Just then, Liverpool produced one of the greatest European comebacks at Anfield. Barcelona outplayed their visitors in the first leg. Luiz Suarez opened the scoring for the Catalan giants before the break. A brace from Lionel Messi handed Barcelona a 3-0 famous victory.

The Reds were without their two key players in the second-leg  —Mohammed Sallah and Robert Firmino —that which made the game predictable. Many pundits wrote Liverpool off.  But the god did the unthinkable. Divock Origi and Wijnaldum were all Jurgen Klopp needed to explode at Anfield and made it unbearable for both Barcelona players and fans. 

Divock Origi put the host at the driver’s side barely before the fans could settle on their seats. Wijnaldum added the second and the third goals within the 9th minutes after the break. Barcelona could not believe what was happening. Their defence was caught sleeping when Alexander-Arnold swung in the unexpected corner which allowed Origi to secure his brace in the match. Barca could not produce a single goal for the whole of the 90th minutes as they went down 4-0  at the Anfield Stadium.

Barca’s manager, Ernesto Valverde, admitted that his side was” rolled over” and “blown away” by Liverpool. 

“We are going to suffer, the fans will suffer as well. That is what it is like. We didn’t expect such a situation like this. At the moment, we’re blown away. It’s terrible,” he added. 

Many Catalan Publication Sport, ragged the lacklustre performance and the defeat as “worst night of recent decades, maybe history” adding that “Barca players felt nausea, as if they had gone weeks without sleep or breathing.”

Lisbon Annihilation

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union of European Football Association ( UEFA) decided to complete the 2019/2020 Champions league on a single-elimination instead of the usual home and away. 

Barcelona clashed with Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals at the Estadio da Luz Stadium, in Lisbon, Portugal. 

The Bavarians made the Catalan giants look like a toy as they cruised past them 8-2 in the single combat. Barca had never conceded eight goals in a single game since 1946, which happen against Sevilla (8-0). The Blaugranas suffered their heaviest defeat of the 21st century that night. 

The ruthless Bayern took the lead at the 7th minute through Thomas Muller but David Alaba’s own goal instantly brought the game back to equal. Ivan Perisic, Gnabry, plus Muller’s brace combined to bring Barcelona 4-1 down before the break. 

Luiz Suarez gave Barca a glimmer of hope at the 57th minute when he pulled off a goal. Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski made it 6-2 before Barca’s loaned out player, Philipe Coutinho registered a brace to produce the humiliating 8-2 annihilation.

Speaking after the match, Gerard Pique, Barca’s centre-back, said via Sky Sports that, “we feel devastated”, adding that “although shame is the real word I’m looking for.”

He continued: “we cannot afford to compete like this because it’s not the first, the second or the third time that something like this has happened.” 

He admitted that the club needs a lot of changes. Though he said, “I don’t want to point fingers at anyone but the club needs to change on a structural level.” 

Also, Frenkie De Jong,the Blaugranas midfielder, via Goal, said the match has shown them that they have a lot of problems in the team. “I think tonight showed that and we know we have to make a lot of changes.” 

Kylian Mbappe’s Hat-trick in Camp Nou

The French side Paris Saint-Germain were drawn with Barcelona in the last-16 of the 2020/2021 champions league campaign. 

Lionel Messi broke the deadlock from the penalty spot. But Mbappe cemented himself as the star of the game —scoring hat-trick plus Kean’s header to sink Barcelona at their almighty Camp Nou. The match buttressed the fact that Camp Nou is a one-time fortress, but not again. 

Mbappe became the first player since Andriy Schevchenko in 1997 to score a champions league hat-trick against the Blaugranas at the Camp Nou.

The remarkable 6-1 comeback of 2017( when Barca lost 4-0 against PSG)  was all expected but Barca could not muster a moment of magic as they only managed to play a 1-1 draw in the second-leg at the Parc Des Princes. 

“This match gives us a lot of confidence,” Griezmann, Barca’s striker,  told the  Movistar Plus, but regretted that they were  “pissed off “. 

“We wanted to go through, the fans and the players don’t deserve for this team to go out early but we will come back next year and try to win,” Griezmann promised. 

Bankruptcy

Barcelona is suffering from a  bad financial difficulty, and that was the reason they could not renew Messi’s contract. Their revenues have been affected badly following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to reports, the Spanish club’s wage budget for the 2021/2022 season is around £138, a quarter of their £579 million wage budget for the 2019/2020 season. 

Barcelona, having not laid their hands on the champions league in six years, their sponsorship deal with Rakuten has fallen from €55 million to €30 million. 

According to NB Sports, Barcelona is currently under a debt of about 1.5 billion euros, said the club’s president, Joan Laporta, in a press conference. 

He said that the club had losses of 481 million euros and was left with a negative net worth of 452 million euros, making it difficult to negotiate with players.

Most of the players like Gerard Pique, Sergio Bosquet, Sergio Roberto and Joldi Alba have taken salary cuts to save the team. 

Another Fiasco: Messi’s Departure

It’s an incontestable fact that Lionel Messi was a talisman to FC Barcelona both in and off the pitch over the years. After 17 years at Camp Nou, the Spanish Club lost the six-time Ballon d’Or winner to Paris Saint-Germain. The Catalan giants are now still struggling to adjust themselves to a new era —an era without Lionel Messi. 

The Argentina superstar scored 672 goals in 778 appearances for the Spanish Club. Won 10  La Liga titles, 4 champions leagues, 7 Copa Del Reys, and other trophies over the years. 

Barcelona would not only miss the six-times Ballon d’Or winner on the pitch, but the Spanish club will suffer off the pitch as well. Messi’s departure has started hitting a major knock on the financial situation of the club. 

A  Spanish economist, Ivan Cabeza, estimated in Marca that the Argentina captain generated between € 120 million and € 200 million every single year for Barcelona. Sponsorship deals are a major source of revenue for a club like Barcelona. And Many of the contracts would have clauses that took Messi into account. Such a contract would be automatically terminated. Also, ticket sales and shirt sales would definitely fall due to the departure of a great star like Messi.