By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona has decided to undertake a brutal cut in the budget of its basketball section for next season, according to Mundo Deportivo. It was known that the club was going to reduce its investment in all professional sections given the delicate economic situation it is going through, but the reduction will ultimately be much higher than expected.
The disappointment experienced in the recent Final Four of the Euroleague in Kaunas, in which the team lost in the semifinals against Real Madrid despite arriving at the event with the highest hopes, has exhausted the patience of the club’s board of directors, who It has loaded with arguments after three years of strong investment without the prize of the European title.
It must be taken into account that the investment in the different sections computes in the financial ‘fair play’ that Barça must comply with in La Liga to be able to register players in the first football team.
Until now there was talk of a reduction of between 10 and 15% of the budget. However, unless the club changes the course, the final cut will be between 20 and 25%. Bearing in mind that the last budget for Barca basketball was around 44 million euros, the reduction that Juan Carlos Navarro, manager of the section, will have to execute, will be for an amount of about 8-11 million euros.
The bulk of this saving should be produced through a reduction in the wage bill, which this season has been around 38 million euros. It will not be easy for the basketball section to carry out this important cut because this June 30 only four of the 16 first-team contracts expire, those of the player’s Kyle Kuric, Sertac Sanli, and Mike Tobey and the coach Sarunas Jasikevicius.