nbfw Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Hey people, I'm currently in the third season of an FC Barcelona FM14 save where I have seen the clubs financial situation deteriorate to a point where my transfer budget at the start of the third season was a measly £500k. With a net spend of around £20m in my first two seasons combine I find it highly unrealistic that FC Barcelona would have such a poor transfer budget - in all my 29 years on this earth I've never known FC Barcelona to be short of a few bob to spend on players I know Barcelona's wage budget is extremely high in the game and must be a contributing factor, however IRL I'm sure this is the same and it doesn't seem to affect their finances and thus transfer budget to any major extent. In my file: The clubs current wage bill is a staggering £3.3m a week. The club is paying approximately £1.9m a month in loan repayments and has a net debt of £213m. The club is currently raking in around £33m a year from sponsors and £107m a year from a TV deal. Is this accurate? Has anyone else experienced something similar with FC Barcelona or one of the worlds richest clubs? Regards, NBFW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hluraven Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 I suspect there is a data problem with Barcelona, as I noticed this. In the data settings, they have an average attendance set at 69,000, but season ticket holders of 86,353. Season tickets are priced at just £380, less than 7 games. For this reason, most games they get either zero or next to nothing gate receipts, and they get less for season tickets than they should as well. Season tickets in game mean free entry for every league game. The 86,353 people paying £380 do not have this in real life, they have 3, 6, 9 or 12 match passes as well as season tickets. FM data appears to be massively underselling Barcelona's gate revenue, both at season ticket level, and especially at single game gate revenue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtuck01 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 The season ticket price is averaged - it doesn't say that every season ticket cost £380. Can't really delve into the rest as I'm in 2031 and only took over Barcelona 18 months ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goonertillidie Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 ive just started 3rd season got 46mil to spend. in last 2 seasons ive spent 130mil and made back 80 in transfers and my wage bills 3.6mil a week Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hluraven Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 The season ticket price is averaged - it doesn't say that every season ticket cost £380. Can't really delve into the rest as I'm in 2031 and only took over Barcelona 18 months ago. Their average full season ticket costs just 7 games worth?. As in game, season tickets cover every league game, so the data should be for the average price of the full season ticket not a three game package. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtuck01 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Their average full season ticket costs just 7 games worth?. As in game, season tickets cover every league game, so the data should be for the average price of the full season ticket not a three game package. Well, I'm guessing the season tickets up in the Gods aren't all that expensive. Having done a bit of research, I have found that in the 2012/13 season, season ticket prices ranged form €125 to €1025, and you could get a 25% discount if you converted it into a ticket just for La Liga games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbfw Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Summary of finances... Detailed expenditure... Detailed income... Detailed projection... Transfer activity... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbfw Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Above is a detailed breakdown of my finances and transfer activity...can anyone see the reason as to why my club is in such a dire financial state? Regards, Nathan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar2010 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Above is a detailed breakdown of my finances and transfer activity...can anyone see the reason as to why my club is in such a dire financial state?Regards, Nathan Well there are a few obvious things. Last season the club lost £30m with £12m due to transfers. So without transfers the club spent more than it earned by £18m. I can't see all the bank loans on the first pic but last season £25m was paid out in loan repayments & interest so they have significant borrowing which are being repaid over time. The finances have never been great, even at the start of the save they only had about £45m in the bank which is the most they've ever had in the save. The 14/15 season saw the bank account take a significant hit - At the start of the season they has just under £30m in the bank but by the end this had dropped to a £40m overdraft (Thats a £70m drop). Overall the club is spending more than it is earning therefore its no surprise the finances trend downwards. As manager the biggest area you can influence is wages, last season you spent £248m on wages and agent fees which was 57% of the clubs total expenses. Wages need to be reduced to a more affordable level. EDIT The board have recognised this and started to make the much needed adjustments - You have no transfer budget and your wage budget is £3.34m per week which means approx £174m per year. This means you are currently exceeding the wage budget by around £58m a year or 33%. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbfw Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Hi Cougar 2010, thanks for your reply. I understand what you have said and agree completely, my point of contention is that the wage bill is very similar to when I took over. From my understanding from years of playing football manager, wages within the game mimic real life salaries and therefore wage bills. I feel there must be an issue with my revenue stream because if Barcelona IRL had a net spend of £20m on transfers over last season and the next, I find it very hard to believe that they would have next to nothing to spend on players at the beginning of the 2015/16 season. Regards, NBFW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar2010 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Hi Cougar 2010, thanks for your reply.I understand what you have said and agree completely, my point of contention is that the wage bill is very similar to when I took over. From my understanding from years of playing football manager, wages within the game mimic real life salaries and therefore wage bills. I feel there must be an issue with my revenue stream because if Barcelona IRL had a net spend of £20m on transfers over last season and the next, I find it very hard to believe that they would have next to nothing to spend on players at the beginning of the 2015/16 season. Well there are two different things to consider here. The first is your save and within FM the club is spending more than its earning which has now caught up with it. Thats a fact which you need to deal with or it will get worse, clubs can't just magic money out of thin air. The second point for discussion is are the finances balanced well with RL? Well IRL although the likes of Real & Barcelona spend big money they have huge financial issues. Despite raising more income than 99% of other clubs in the world they simply spend too much. There are various articles & reports all over the web pointing out the issues dating back many years. The state of the Spanish economy and the failure of the Spanish FA to deal with the issues have brought it more into light in the last few years. Spanish football isn't in a good place with La Liga clubs having the most debt of any European leagues and the least ability to cover that debt. Many of the clubs have huge tax bills (The £50m Ath. Madrid got for Aguero was reported as going directly to the Spanish government to reduce their tax debt) with several clubs having made repayment agreements with the Spanish government. Several clubs are in bankrupcy protection while others like Valencia & Villarreal have had to sell off their squads in recent seasons. Two years ago the La Liga season was nearly delayed by a player's strike over unpaid wages with over £50m reportedly owed to over 200 players. In terms of Real & Barcelona they are well supported by the banks & government to some degree with no one wanting to damage their reputation. They are well known for paying for players over time whilst we've also seen players leave both clubs for big money recently to finance purchases - Barcelona have sold Fabregas & Sanchez this summer which goes most of the way to pay for Suarez while Real have sold Ozil, Higuain & Morata for over £90m in total during the last 12 months. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki679 Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 Swissramble analysed Barca and RM's financial situations. They're not in bad shape financially. http://swissramble.blogspot.hk/2012/04/truth-about-debt-at-barcelona-and-real.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbfw Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Thanks for the reply guys. I realise the financial situation my club is in and what I need to do to address it. I guess I cannot expect the game to mimic how the Spanish banks prop up Barcelona and Real Madrid as they do in real life, although it would be nice . NBFW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.