Cash fears haunt treble chasers Barcelona

The 2015/16 season so far could not really have gone any better for Barcelona’s fans, players or directors.

Saturday’s 6-0 stroll at home to Getafe was Barca’s 12th straight league win, and stretched their unbeaten run to 37 matches in all competitions.

Lionel Messi and company remain eight points ahead of second placed Atletico Madrid in the La Liga table, with just nine games remaining, and are huge favourites for May’s Copa del Rey final against Sevilla.

Taking a 2-0 advantage into Wednesday’s Champions League last 16 second leg at home to Arsenal, the Spaniards look well placed to repeat last season’s haul of all three major trophies.

No team in history has ever won back-to-back trebles, and nobody has been able to retain the Champions League trophy since the competition was expanded in 1992.

In further exciting news, last week also saw the announcement that Barca had chosen a joint Japanese / Catalan bid from Nikken Sekkei and Pascual i Ausio Arquitectes for the planned €600 million redevelopment of the Camp Nou and surrounding area.

Work on the super modern expansion to seat 105,000 spectators is scheduled to be completed in 2021/22.

All is not really so rosyy around the current Camp Nou however.

It was widely assumed the club’s close commercial allies in Qatar would provide part-funding for the stadium project via a €200 million plus naming rights deal.

But not even the club’s current shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways has yet been extended past the current season, leading to Barca having to indemnify kit suppliers Nike.

Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu appears to be paying for criticism of the Gulf state’s internal politics on his way to winning last summer’s presidential election.

Financing the new stadium is not the only economic issue facing the board. The flipside of having the best team around is that everyone else wants your players.

And your players and their agents know this.

Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez are all soon due new contract extensions.

Key midfielder Sergio Busquets has more than once called on Bartomeu to come through with a pay-rise promised last year.

Bartomeu’s problem is that statutes introduced by previous president Sandro Rosell oblige the current directors to keep the club’s debt at less than 2.75 times its net income.

Despite gross earnings topping €650 million this season, the club’s debt is currently [according to El Pais] at €328 million, and edging closer to the cut-off point at which the board would be legally bound to resign.

This meant no players were signed in January, even with Luis Enrique calling publicly for Celta Vigo forward Nolito.

Former Barca coach Pep Guardiola’s arrival at super-rich Manchester City this summer also ups the ante in any negotiations.

Signing Busquets, still just 27, would be an ideal way for Pep to quickly bring his particular style of play to City.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid and Manchester United are both reportedly willing to offer Neymar a move that could help finally end the legal issues around his 2013 arrival in Catalonia.

Barca’s board apparently hope to raise money this summer by selling some squad players.

This policy has worked before with Cesc Fabregas, Pedro Rodriguez and Alexis Sanchez being sold to rich Premier League clubs.

But the likes of Adriano Correia, Marc Bartra, Douglas or Sandro Ramirez are unlikely to bring in so much cash.

None of this will have been much consolation for Getafe’s players on Saturday, or provide solace to Barca’s chasers in La Liga, or Arsenal fans on Wednesday.

But Barca supporters should really enjoy the next few months, as there is no guarantee such success will last forever.