The goodbye of Leo Messi has meant an earthquake at a sporting, sentimental and media level for Barcelona and its fans, but the departure of the club of his life can lead to many other headaches for the Barça entity, such as a sharp decrease in income if you can't quickly weave a solid strategy together.

"From now on, to keep the sponsors, the competitiveness of the team will be more important than the names, but it is clear that Messi's goodbye will have consequences at the level of sponsors for the club," explains Marc Ciria, an expert in the finances of the club. Barcelona and CEO of Diagonal Inversiones.

And he adds: "Now they have to win Champions Leagues. It will no longer be worth with a face like until now. Sporting performance will be key to stay with the sponsors. Messi gave them a story and now they have been left without him. We have to bet on medium term for other emblems from La Masia such as Ansu Fati, although they do not reach the level of Messi".

Currently the sponsors contribute a total of 180 million euros per year to Barça and the intention of Joan Laporta's board of directors was to maintain this figure during the first two years of his mandate in order to try to exceed 200 from the third. departure of Messi, who generated a third of the club's direct and indirect income according to several studies, these forecasts have been complicated.

"The sponsors will endure this year despite the fact that some have a 'Messi clause' in the contract. They will not abandon ship in the short term, because it would not give a good image to their brand, but they will be waiting for Barça's reaction to make decisions in the medium term", comments Ciria.

And, precisely in the medium term, the first big stone appears on the road. On June 30, 2022, he ends the contract with the main sponsor of the shirt, Rakuten, which this course will pay 30 million more variables. Barça's intention was to return to pre-pandemic values, which were at least 55 million, starting in the 2022-2023 season.

But from the commercial department of the club they no longer saw it easy to achieve it before Messi's goodbye. Negotiations are open with the Japanese brand, which has sponsored the club since 2017, but Barça is willing to listen to other offers.

Rakuten

Cinto Ajram, one of those responsible for closing the agreement with Rakuten in 2016 and the head of the sponsorship area of ​​Laporta's candidacy, explained in an interview that he reduced it to the most variable 30 million euros for the 2021-2022 academic year responded "to Rakuten's uncertainty regarding Messi's future".

@iammrmoises How's ur veggies?? My tomatoes r all over the place..

— GrammiMariannaBear🐻 Wed Jul 21 15:25:28 +0000 2021

Barça has received different proposals from companies of 'crypto exchanges' (point of sale of cryptocurrencies), although it is a sector with which the club does not feel comfortable because it is speculative, risky and highly variable.

But time presses. Nike, the brand in charge of making the Barça team's game clothing, has set a deadline of October to find out who will be the new main sponsor of the shirt from July 2022.

The Depay factor

"Until now, when Barça's shield was negotiated with a sponsor, it was Messi. Now it should be the club, although efforts are being made quickly for Memphis Depay to become relevant in the short term in this regard," says Ciria.

"If Messi sold 8 out of 10 Barça shirts, in the best of cases Depay could sell 5 and prevent the drop in sales of Barça shirts (they represent between 20 and 30 million annually for the entity) from going beyond 30 % in the short term," he adds.

Messi has some 245 million followers on Instagram, more than double that of the official account of FC Barcelona, ​​which is close to 100. This is an example that worldwide "there are many fans who are more of Messi than of Barça" and "a large part of them will be made by the team where Messi goes," Ciria points out.

According to the consulting firm Brand Finance, the departure of the Argentine player could cost Barça up to 137 million euros in brand value. Thus, there would be a reduction of 11% compared to the current 1,266 million.

The 137 million would come mainly from a drop in the Barça club's commercial income, which would be reduced by 77 million, and from the sale of shirts and other marketing products, with which it would stop earning 43 million.

On the other hand, a few weeks ago the Fitch rating agency gave Barcelona a negative triple B, news that was received with joy at the club because it paves the way for refinancing its debt up to 525 million euros under the tutelage of Goldman Sachs .

"When Fitch made this rating, he was counting on Messi to continue at Barça," says Ciria. "But this qualification will not change in the short term. We are in a waiting period, just as in the case of the sponsors. What each other wants is good executive management of the club and sporting competitiveness," says the general director of Diagonal Investments.