Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Barnsley FC & FC Barcelona
Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT - BARNSLEY FC
As pillars of the community, football clubs are expected to behave in a certain way. They have to set an example to their fanbase and welcome everyone from all walks of life. Barnsley FC averted a potentially ongoing issue by addressing fan concerns head on.
The League One club announced the deal with HEX.com last week, a crypto partner who would appear on the front of the their kits for the upcoming season.
Social media accounts connected to HEX’s founder Brent Morrissey were reported to have made some homophobic comments.
The Barnsley Supporters Trust raised concerns over the online posts and in a statement they said: “In the days following Friday’s announcement of the club’s new sponsorship deal with crypto currency HEX, it became clear that a significant amount of supporters had reservations about the football club entering in to such a partnership.
“These reservations only intensified yesterday as clarity around who brokered this sponsorship deal, and which individuals were genuinely involved, grew.
“BFCST spoke with the club on Sunday morning, and followed that up today seeking an update to the four areas we believe are of most concern to Barnsley FC supporters.
“Who is our sponsorship deal actually with? Which parties from HEX, and which parties from Barnsley FC, agreed the partnership?
“What due diligence was taken regarding the history of the company?
“The online HEX community are extremely active, to the detriment of the online experience for our own supporters. Whilst the club can’t do anything to stop people interacting online, is this a behaviour the club want to be associated with given its negative effect on the fan base?
“Linked to question one, some individuals are claiming they brokered the deal to sponsor the football club rather than Richard Heart the founder of HEX. These individuals have questionable views and opinions that none of us would want associated with the football club. How can we distance ourselves from these people and views if we continue with HEX as our main shirt sponsor?”
Rainbow Reds, the club’s LGBQT+ supporters group, joined in support of the Trust and released their own statement: “We are aware of the abhorrent accusations towards representatives of new sponsors, HEX. We do not wish to jump to conclusions, and this is not our investigation to carry out.
“However, we plead with the club, the board and CEO to act upon this immediately and begin a thorough investigation of this.
"Football is for everyone. With recent milestones such as Jake Daniels' public coming-out and the Euro 2022 triumph for the Lionesses, this should be a time of celebration for all.
“We are appalled at these accusations and we hope to find clarity with fans, sponsors and the club as soon as possible. To reiterate, we are not concluding these accusations as true. We ask for an investigation into the matter, and we trust the club with the outcome.”
Barnsley acted quickly to address the concerns and commenced an inquiry. In a statement announcing the start of the inquiry, Barnsley said: “Barnsley Football Club is aware of images currently circulating on social media and is investigating the background to these posts.
“Barnsley Football Club does not condone any form of abuse. Further comment will be made when appropriate.”
HEX.com’s Brent Morrissey attempted to clear up the situation and said: “It has come to my attention that a number of tweets of a homophobic nature made by two members of the HEX community have surfaced.
“Whilst I do not condone homophobia, it is important to recognise that the tweets were made by two individuals not associated with HEX.com.”
By the end of the week, Barnsley had taken drastic action and ended their partnership. In a statement explaining their decision, they said: “Barnsley Football Club value our fans and our core beliefs above everything else.
“Following recent events and a subsequent investigation, the Club has assessed its relationship with its front of shirt sponsor and has taken steps to end that relationship with immediate effect. The HEX.com logo will not appear on the team’s kits going forward.
“Further comment will be issued in due course.”
Rainbow Reds issued another statement in support of the decision that said: “We are delighted with the outcome of today's statement. Under no circumstance do we wish for the club to go through a situation as tough as this, but with the evidence laid out to us via social media, we had no option but to categorically condemn HEX from having any associated with our proud football club.
“Nobody is exempt from making mistakes, and despite this being a relatively large error - we fully forgive the club for any wrong-doing.”
Clear communication is vital and so for Barnsley to be so transparent in their actions and statements, they were able to very easily manage the situation and not let it evolve into a crisis.
Following this ordeal, the Barnsley Supporters Trust is working with the Football Supporters’ Association to call on the football authorities to create a set of common standards for any cryptocurrency partnership a club or league enters into, and to lobby clubs to carry out due diligence on any current or future cryptocurrency partners.
Since there is increased scrutiny on clubs having gambling partners on their new kits, teams like Barnsley have had to look for alternative sponsors.
It currently looks like crypto companies are going to be the ones that clubs look to and are providing the latest influx of cash into sports. Cryptocurrency is a relatively new phenomenon and the industry itself is still largely unregulated.
The most significant example of this is Chelsea recently struck a shirt-sleeve deal worth $24m with a fast-growing digital asset investments platform – WhaleFin.
Many other top European clubs including Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus have big money sponsorship deals with Socios, a cryptocurrency organisation.
Only time will tell if this trend continues, but clubs would do well to take a leaf out of Barnsley’s book and be cautious about the type of firms to get involved with.
Having clear beliefs and acting ethically and morally is crucial for the reputation of any organisation. It says a lot about the principles of Barnsley that they have acted so quickly in removing the sponsor.
The beautiful game is for everyone, and no fan should have to watch their team endorse a brand that has employees with these discriminatory views.
MISS – FC BARCELONA
Barcelona have had an eventful summer – and last few years in fact – to say the least.
There were years of high spending on players with disappointing results on the pitch. Between 2017 and 2021, the club spent more than €1b on signings, resulting in a net loss from transfers of €340m. They also had the highest annual wage bill in Europe, peaking at €575m in 2019.
Revenue was forecast to top €1b in 2019/20, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and the club was forced to close its 99,000-seater Camp Nou.
This financial mismanagement of the club, which has led to former President Josep Maria Bartomeu and ex-adviser Jaume Masferrer facing corruption charges, left new President Laporta with an eye-watering debt of €1.35b, with player salaries accounting for 103% of all income as of last August.
This explains why Barcelona were at the centre of trying to push forward the now collapsed European Super League. Even when the six English clubs pulled out of the league, Barcelona were part of the “rebel three clubs” that clung onto the idea that it would still happen.
The aborted attempt to create this breakaway Super League with a big sign-on bonus removed the hopes of a quick financial fix.
This was a big blow to Barcelona from an economic point of view, and we are just seeing now how great that setback really is. It also explains why just last year President Laporta said: “The project is alive. The three clubs who are defending the project are winning all the court cases.
“UEFA cannot stop it, and the pressure on English clubs, who were those behind the plans, hasn’t had any effect. Granted, it could have been presented in a better way.”’
A month after the ESL collapsed, a Madrid court asked the European Court of Justice to make a preliminary ruling on whether its interpretation of EU competition law — that UEFA and FIFA had broken it by trying to crush a rival competition before it could start — was right or not.
In the backdrop to the fallout of the ESL, Barcelona’s debts grew, re-signing their captain Lionel Messi became impossible under La Liga’s financial rules. Priced out, Messi bade a tearful farewell to Barcelona, joining Qatar-owned Paris St.-Germain as a free agent.
Just two months ago, President Laporta said: “The club was practically dead from the economic point of view.
“After looking for solutions by restructuring the debt and saving financial costs, reducing the sports and non-sports wage bill, increasing income and working on the financing of Espai Barça, we began to recover Barça by taking it to the ICU thanks to the intensive care that we apply With the sole objective that Barça continues without use owned by the partners.”
For Barcelona fans, this raises questions about how their club has been able to spend a combined €140m to sign Brazil winger Raphinha from Leeds United, Poland forward Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich and France centre-back Jules Kounde from Sevilla. They also have secured the signatures of Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie from Chelsea and AC Milan respectively on free transfers.
There have been reports from well-renowned Spanish football journalists that Barcelona are trying to annul the contract of dynamic midfielder Frenkie De Jong, as the terms he was offered by the previous board were, in the eyes of the current regime, illegal.
This leaves the club reported to be owing the Dutchman £17m in deferred wages. This again seems at odds with their frivolous spending spree. The Spanish media has relentlessly reported this summer how the club needs De Jong to leave in order to register their new signings.
But, according to former President Bartomeu, Barcelona’s allegations have no standing as the contract extensions handed out to the four players had been ratified by the club’s lawyers as well as external auditors. So, Bartomeu is of the belief that there was no wrongdoing with the contract extensions in 2020.
De Jong isn’t the only player contracted to Barcelona who has refused to leave until wages are paid in full. Danish striker Martin Braithwaite has indicated that he won’t exit the club until he gets what he’s owed. The 31-year-old has two years left on his contract and with no prospective buyers, the Catalan club were anticipating that he would agree to leave for free.
They were hoping that they could agree a compensation package for the player, but he wants to be paid his full two years of wages, that they would owe him.
The hectic summer at Barcelona continued into a row between the Catalan club and La Liga authorities over whether their financial manoeuvres should allow them to register all the players they’ve signed, which will inevitably include the players they are currently trying to sign, such as Chelsea’s Marcus Alonso and Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva.
Last month, Barcelona announced they had sold another 15% of their La Liga television rights to a US investment firm to release finances which will strengthen their hand in the transfer market. Indeed, “an additional investment” from Sixth Street, which in late June acquired 10% of Barcelona’s La Liga TV rights for the next 25 years.
When Barcelona confirmed that deal they said it would generate a total capital gain of €267m for this season and that Sixth Street would initially invest €207.5m.
La Liga does not agree with how Barcelona’s economic situation has been managed— and, specifically, the authorities have questions over how Barca structured their deals with Sixth Street. The league reviewed the documentation provided by Barcelona about their business this summer, but disagreed with their calculations. The problem was that Barcelona were budgeting for a total capital gain of €667m from the two deals, while Sixth Street was initially investing €517m.
However, Barcelona have listened and have activated a fourth economic lever, to generate a short-term cash injection, this week worth a reported €100m, through selling another 24.5% of Barca Studios to the GDA investment fund. With the announcement made just days before the start of their domestic campaign, it is a race against time for their star players to be registered to play in the forthcoming season.
Luckily for Barcelona, the latest economic lever was ratified by La Liga in time for Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha to be able to feature in their opening day draw with Rayo Vallecano.
For any organisation, actions and words must be aligned, which is what makes Barcelona’s situation all the more confusing. On the one hand they are spending lavishly, whilst on the other seemingly unable to afford to register their star players that they’ve signed.
Coupled to this, the confusing financial activities they are undertaking to alleviate their critical financial position and pointing the finger of blame at former regimes, while holding the mantra of “Més que un Club”, seems like a hollow message at this point in time.