Barça has to consider the real cost of Catalan freedom

Somewhere, someplace in the world it seems, the people are out in the streets. None has caught the world’s attention in the past few weeks than the near constant marches and rallies being organised in the name of the freedom of Catalonia from Spain.

With a referendum on the independence question slated for 1 October 2017 in a region with the largest population in that country and an economic output bigger than Greece or Scotland, the question is, “does Barcelona Football Club, one of the world’s most accomplished clubs and a globally recognised brand names, really want to leave Spain despite their support over the years?”

In the grand scheme of musings over the status of Catalonia in Spain, this might be considered by some as a mere cultural footnote but that would be a dismissive assessment. After all, this is a club that is the second most valuable sports team in the world, worth $3.56 billion, and the world’s second richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €560.8 million.

Domestically, Barcelona has won 24 La Liga, 29 Copa del Rey, 12 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies, as well as being the record holder for the latter four competitions. In international club football, Barcelona has won twenty European and World titles — four UEFA Champions League titles and one European Cup, a record four UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, a shared record five UEFA Super Cup, a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a record three FIFA Club World Cup.

This colossus of a club currently occupies the third position in the UEFA club rankings and was the top club as recently as 2015. The club’s long-standing rivalry with Real Madrid, with matches between the two teams are referred to as El Clásico so fierce and uber-competitive that during the era of the Spanish Civil War and the military rule of Francisco Franco, the Madrid team was known as the team of the dictatorship while Barcelona occupied an indelible place in the Catalan mentality as the quintessential symbol of defiance and independence.

The Catalans, records tell us, organised the first football association match and the first league competition in Spain. Thus, in the modern era, they can somewhat sentimentally claim to be ready for a clean break from the La Liga, However, certain sacrifices will have to be made and they will be costly.

The first thing to suffer will be the quality of competition in the Catalan League. Several football clubs from Catalonia have competed and do compete in the Spanish La Liga, most notably Barcelona but that is where the quality ends. Perhaps the Girona and Barcelona this past weekend gave us an insight on the quality of competition to be expected. Barça played one of their poorest games this season and still comfortably won by 3 goals to nil.

The Blaugrana are the highest ranked club in the region, followed by Espanyol and amazingly, Barcelona B is the third-ranked team. Other teams like UE Lleida and Sabadell and the aforementioned Girona are teams that one vaguely remembers but will be the competition in a potential Catalan League. So poor is this competition that Barcelona and Espanyol usually field their weakest teams for the competition associated with the region, the Copa Catalunya.

The huge TV rights deal is another sacrifice that Barcelona would have to pay. As much as Barcelona is interesting to watch, a large part of their appeal is also down to the opposition they face. The current Spanish La Liga TV deal is worth €2.65 billion and Barcelona’s latest revenue show it is well on its way to being a billion-dollar club; nevertheless, nobody is going to pay top bucks to watch Terrassa FC play Palamos CF. A huge source of revenue will have to be forfeited in the process.

Perhaps the most important loss could be participation in the UEFA Champions League. Catalonia, with its UEFA coefficient, may not even have teams represent it, and if they do, such teams would have to play several qualifiers to get the winner of the Catalan League into the group stages of the world’s premier club football competition.

In the light of an independence push and the aforementioned postulations, it should be taken for granted that there would be a mass exodus of big-name players and talent from one of the world’s elite football establishments. A deal with the Spanish La Liga to keep Catalan clubs in their league while not impossible, may be highly improbable considering the bad blood that this latest independence push has sprung.

The best way to prepare for this possible freedom is to consider the worst-case scenario. Is Futbol Club Barcelona really prepared to pay the price?

Tega Onojaife is a sports journalist and broadcaster. She can be found anchoring sports programmes on Smooth 98.1FM Lagos and the NTA.