the money Barça saves by not doing the traditional mosaic

BarcelonaIn this life nothing is forever. Even traditions run out of time. In the recent La Liga classic, played on March 19, for the first time since 1992 the Barça players took to the Camp Nou pitch to face Real Madrid without a mosaic dominating the scenery in the stands. The decision was made by Joan Laporta’s board of directors, which has remained firm in this regard for the second leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals that Xavi Hernández’s team will play this Wednesday (9 p.m., TVE1) to the Blaugrana feud. The lead in the first leg is 0-1 thanks to Éder Militao’s own goal and a strong defensive effort from Xavi Hernández at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Making a mosaic at Camp Nou, according to sources familiar with the logistics consulted by the ARA, costs around 70,000 euros. Thus, between the classic in March and this Wednesday’s, Barça has saved a total of 140,000 euros in this concept. For a club that has budgeted to enter 1,255 million euros this year (counting levers from last summer) it may seem like an anecdotal figure, but the serious economic situation that continues to drag Barça causes this cut, which might not be the only one facing the club in the coming months, don’t be silly.

There are many open fronts. The most important is the remodeling of the Camp Nou, which is scheduled to begin once the sports season ends. But we also have to take into account the decrease of more than 100 million euros in income for each season at Montjuïc and Barça’s desire to deal with additions this summer and, above all, regularize the signings of Gavi, Araujo, Sergi Roberto and Marcos Alonso. In fact, at last Thursday’s board meeting, the club renewed two bank policies for a total of 49.5 million with Caixabank and Banco Santander with the aim of having more liquidity to face its ordinary operations.

But, despite this saving of 140,000 euros that will mean for Barça’s economy not to make mosaics in this spring’s classics, sources from the Blaugrana club consulted by the ARA explain a reason for doing without it: “The animation during the last few months in the stadium is being so intense and wonderful that there is no need for a mosaic.”

The Barça brand image

This Wednesday is not just any classic. Apart from being the second consecutive without Florentino Pérez at the head of the Madrid representation due to the Negreira case, if there is not an unexpected turn in the tempo remodeling of the Camp Nou, will be the last to be played at the Blaugrana stadium before the temporary exile in Montjuïc. And the mosaics, beyond the emotional and animation component they have, are a factor that can contribute to Barça’s brand image in important matches. “The transcendence depends on the motto of the mosaic,” a source who has worked on the creation of some of them tells this newspaper. “To write More than a club you don’t have to do it. On the other hand, some have been historic and have gone around the world. One of them was that of the campaign The ball makes us more (shown in the May 6, 2018 classic), which was powerful,” he adds.

Historical mosaics of Barça

During the 31 years that the Camp Nou made mosaics in the classics without interruption, some stood out for their plasticity or because they were a tribute to some key figure in the history of Barça. In this sense, particularly emotional were the strength, tito of October 2013, when a few months ago the ex-Barcelona coach had to leave the bench due to cancer and the Thanks Johan that graced the stadium in April 2016, days after the death of the Dutch legend.

The last mosaic that Barça made at the Camp Nou was precisely the first in history in a women’s classic. On March 30, 2022, in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the cards of the Blaugrana fans showed the slogan More than empowerment (More than empowerment). That afternoon Barça broke the world attendance record for a women’s football match for the first time with 91,553 spectators and qualified for the semi-finals of the competition by beating Real Madrid 5-2.